Hyderabad: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party on Monday suspended former Minister Jupally Krishna Rao and former MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy for indulging in “anti-party activities”.
Both were suspended on directions of BRS Party president and Chief Minister K.Chandrshekar Rao, the party said in a statement here.
Such actions may be expected in the next few months as the State moves closer to face the Assembly elections.
Krishna Rao, who was associated with the Congress party for long, joined BRS (TRS) before the 2014 Assembly elections and retained his seat from Kollapur on TRS ticket. He was made a Minister during the 2014-18 period.
He, however, lost the 2018 elections.
Krishna Rao is likely to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is scouting for leaders with a mass base in many constituencies as the BJP leaders have already established contact with the former Minister, according to sources.
On the other hand, former MP from Khammam Srinivasa Reddy, who won the 2014 election on the YSR Congress Party ticket and switched to BRS later, was denied BRS ticket for the 2019 Parliamentary election as the leadership picked up Nama Nageswara Rao, who won the election.
Expressing anger over denying party ticket in 2019 elections, Srinivasa Reddy for the last couple of years has been engaged in building up his ranks by holding meetings with his supporters and making harsh statements against the party leadership.
In a recent party workers’ get-together meeting , the former MP dared the BRs leadership to suspend him from the party if it had guts instead of suspending party workers for supporting him and attending his meetings.
He alleged that BRS leadership had made many promises but failed to fulfill them.
He said he was not in a hurry to make a decision on joining other political parties.
The former MP, who stayed away from Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao’s public meeting held in Khammam last month, is believed to have met leaders of BJP and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Telangana Party (YSRTP) in the past few weeks.
