Telangana former TDP chief L Ramana joins TRS

Hyderabad: Days after he quit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) citing ‘changing political equations in the state’, L Ramana joined the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Monday in the presence of the party’s working president KT Rama Rao here.

L Ramana is offered primary membership of the party.

Ramana was earlier TDP’s president in Telangana, post bifurcation in 2014. He had tendered resignation on Friday, in a letter addressed to the party’s chief N Chandrababu Naidu.

Sources said earlier that he would be offered an MLC position. The former MLA from Jagtial joining TRS is expected to bolster the ruling party ahead of the Huzurabad by-election.

Ramana joining TRS is a blow months after the Telugu Desam Legislature Party (TDPLP) was merged with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party (TRSLP). Two MLAs, Machha Nageshwar Rao and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, who had defected to the TRS, handed over a letter granting their assent to the merger to the assembly speaker.

Ramana has served two times as MLA and once as MP. He had also served as a state minister of handlooms in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh between 1994 and 1996.