Six-time MP Sai Pratap quits Congress, joins TDP

Six-time Congress MP Sai Pratap of Rajampeta in Cuddapah district on Thursday joined the ruling Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, leaving behind the Grand Old Party that split the combined AP. Backbone of the Kapu community in the Reddy-dominated Cuddapah district, Sai Pratap, former Union Minister, had to bow to the wishes of the people in the changed situation of the Congress being thrown out by the people and join the TDP. He donned the yellow upper cloth of the TDP in the presence of AP Chief Minister Chadnrababu Naidu. Sai Pratap said he had taken the decision to join the TDP after consulting his constituents. He said he would strengthen the TDP in Cuddapah under the leadership of Chandrababu. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had taken the decision to split the combined State going against its own leaders and paying for its gamble of keeping Telangana under its wing. Telangana, in fact, was the first to reject the Congress. Now the generations of committed Congress leaders in Andhra too are rejecting the Congress. Sai Pratap's is not the final blow for the Congress. The Grand Old Party should take action against all those of its leaders who had given the advice to split the State.