Andhra: Two-time MLA dumps TDP and joins ruling YSRCP, calls Chandrababu ‘traitor’

In a blow to the TDP ahead of the assembly elections in the state, two-time sitting TDP MLA from Visakhapatnam south constituency, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar, joined the ruling YSRCP on Sunday.
A leader from the fishing community, he is set to seek a fresh term in the Assembly from the South constituency, albeit on a YSRCP ticket.
Significantly, the switchover came a day after YSRCP supremo and Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy was injured in a stone-pelting attack while headlining a roadshow in Vijaywada.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday after donning his new political stripes, Ganesh Kumar hit out at party chief and former CM N Chandrababu Naidu, calling him a traitor.
For the TDP supremo, an election manifesto holds no significance at all, he said.
“If elected, Chandrababu Naidu will have no regard for the manifesto. I can hold myself up as the best example of this. During the TDP rule, he once promised in the manifesto that fishermen would be added to the ST community from the lists of backward classes. He even promised pensions to people in the fishing community, who are over 50 years of age. However, on a visit to Visakhapatnam, when all party leaders of the fishermen’s community, including myself, approached him and urged him to fulfil his promises, he snapped at me, warning that he would skin me alive if I brought up the topic again with him. I decided thereafter to quit the TDP, as he turned out to be a traitor,” he added.
The two-time MLA added that no other community offers prayers to Goddess Ganga except that of the fishermen. “Fishermen depend on Ganga Devi. We belong to the Mista backward class. The fishing community is in such fiscal distress that their women don’t even have proper clothes to wear. It was CM Jagan, who prioritised the interests and welfare of the fishing community and even gave them opportunities to be elected as MLAs, MLCs and ministers. Chandrababu Naidu never keeps his word. Whatever he says is nothing but a false promise. I know this as I have seen him from close quarters. Nobody knows about Chandrababu Naidu more than I do.”
In a word of caution for Jana Sena chief and actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan, who entered into an electoral alliance with the TDP earlier, Ganesh Kumar said Chandrababu would dump him if he wins the assembly elections.
“Kalyan might be dumped by Chandrababu if he wins these elections. He should rethink the alliance with the TDP and come out of it. The only agenda for Pawan Kalyan is to stop Jagan Mohan Reddy from ruling the state. He has no other agenda,” he added.
Ganesh Kumar was elected MLA from Visakhapatnam South constituency in the 2014 and 2019 elections on a TDP ticket.
However, he will contest the seat on a YSRCP ticket this year against Jana Sena candidate Vamsi Krishna