Two YSRCP Rajya Sabha MPs quit, more could be on way out; TDP could open account in Upper House

Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao, Beedha Masthan Rao submit resignation; Venkataramana has been unhappy since Assembly polls over denial of ticket

According to sources, Venkataramana and Masthan recently met TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and will likely join the TDP. (File)

As two YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) Rajya Sabha MPs – Mopidevi Venkataramana Rao and Beedha Masthan Rao – resign as members of the Upper House, at least six more YSRCP MPs are believed to be headed out.

According to sources, Venkataramana and Masthan recently met TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and will likely join the TDP. “While Venkataramana will be renominated as a Rajya Sabha MP, Masthan has agreed to join the TDP unconditionally,” sources within the TDP told The Indian Express.

Rajya Sabha sources said Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar has accepted their resignations. While both are first-time Rajya Sabha MPs, Venkataramana’s term was set to expire in 2026 while Masthan was to retire in 2028. The acceptance of their resignations has paved the way for by-elections of the two seats.

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A TDP insider said that at least six more YSRCP Rajya Sabha MPs could be on their way out. “Some of them will join the TDP while a few are likely to join the BJP,” the source said.

With the defections, the TDP is set to re-enter the Upper House. Since 2019, all the 11 Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra have been with the YSRCP.

Insiders said that the YSRCP MPs have begun to feel “irrelevant”. “There is also no clarity about (party chief) Jagan Mohan Reddy’s stance on various issues. While he supported the NDA’s Speaker pick, he was subsequently seen cosying up to the INDIA bloc. The MPs feel that staying out of power is making them irrelevant in the Upper House,” the source told The Indian Express.

While Venkataramana, a multiple-time MLA and a former minister in the N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Cabinets, was seen as a Jagan loyalist, he has been miffed with the YSRCP since the party denied him a ticket from the Repalle Assembly seat in the recent elections. The YSRCP was trounced by the TDP-JanaSena Party (JSP)-BJP alliance in the elections and reduced to 11 seats.

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While he was in the Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet, Venkataramana was arrested along with former minister Dharmana Prasad Rao by the CBI in connection with the alleged Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Industrial Corridor (VANPIC) scam.

The other YSRCP MP to resign from the party Thursday, Masthan, who is known in Andhra political circles to be close to Naidu, was recently in the news after his daughter knocked down a man with her luxury car in Chennai. He is an industrialist and the chairman of the BMR Group of Companies, which is one of the largest exporters of shrimp in the country.

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