Mudragada Padmanabham joins YSR Congress; YS Jagan welcomes him into party

AMARAVATHI: Senior leader and former minister Mudragada Padmanabham, who has been espousing the cause of Kapu community, which has one of the largest vote shares in Andhra Pradesh, has joined the YSR Congress Party in the presence of its supremo and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan reddy.

Padmanabham, along with his son Giri, went to the officials residence of the Chief Minister in Tadepalli on Friday morning and formally joined the party.

Jagan welcomed him by adorning him with the party stole. Mudragada later gave a call to the Kapu community to support the YSR Congress Party in the upcoming elections to the Assembly and the Lok Sabha to ensure that their aspirations were fulfilled.

Also Read: Mudragada to join YSR Congress on March 14 in YS Jagan’s presence

In fact, he wanted to go to Tadepalli from his Kirlampudi residence in East Godavari district in a huge rally of cars on March 14 and had fixed a ‘muhurtham’ to start between 7 am and 9 am and joing the party in the presence of YS Jagan between 4 pm and 6 pm. However, the party headquarters and the Chief Minister’s security had communicated to him that a large number of people could not be accommodated at the Chief Minister’s residence.

Also Read: Mudragada postpones joining YSRCP, cancels rally, to join alone on March 15 or 16

Therefore, Padmanabham had appealed to the cadres, who responded to his idea of going in a huge rally to Tadepalli, not to accompany him and that he would go alone and join.

In fact, he had announced to the media that he was joining the YSR Congress party unconditionally and was not aspiring for the party ticket either for himself or his son in the upcoming elections. He said he would work for the party and if Jagan was elected, he would get him implement more welfare schemes for the poor and the downtrodden.

He said he would honour whatever the Chief Minister offered to him after the elections.

Mudragada’s joining would give a boost to the YSR Congress, especially in the two Godavari districts, where the Kapu community has a dominant presence. Another Kapu patriarch Chegondi Harirama Jogaiah’s son also joined the YSR Congress. Mr Jogaiah has been giving pinpricks to Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan over his “surrender” to the BJP and failing to demand a large number of seats from the TDP.