Two more TDP MLAs set to board TRS car

The Telangana unit of the TDP is expected to lose two more MLAs, Maganti Gopinath and Arekapudi Gandhi. This is the surmise made by the party leaders in the wake of their absence at the meeting called by AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to pay tributes to former Home Minister Alimineti Madhava Reddy at NTR Trust Bhavan in Hyderabad on Monday. The TDP leaders insist that Maganti and Gandhi had absented themselves despite the specific request to attend the meeting by Chandrababu himself. With this the TDP strength is going to hit three from the 15 it had in 2014 assembly elections. Ten had already got down from the bicycle and got into the ruling TRS car. Of the five, two played truant on Monday, leaving the TDP with just three MLAs. Maganti and Gandhi have allegedly been successfully persuaded by the TRS leadership. Indeed, Chandrababu paid a moving tribute to Madhava Reddy, saying there was none like him to fill the vacuum created by his death. The Chief Minister was obviously in the know of the desertions.