Purandeshwari Slams Naidu Over Defectors In Cabinet

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu continues to attract criticism for inducting defectors into his cabinet in the reshuffle and expansion of his ministry undertaken on Sunday.

Four YSR Congress Party MLAs - Adinarayan Reddy, Amarnath Reddy, Sujaya Krishna Rao and Bhuma Akhila Priya - who had defected to the Telugu Desam Party were given places in the Chandrababu Naidu cabinet.

Soon after that, Naidu started receiving flak from the Congress, the Left parties and the TRS. Telangana minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who had defected from the TDP to the TRS to grab a ministerial post, lambasted the AP Chief Minister for screaming from the rooftops last year to protest his induction into the Telangana cabinet as unethical, undemocratic and unconstitutional. He wondered how a person who had so furiously objected to his induction into the TRS cabinet had now himself accommodated those who had switched from an opposition party to the TDP.

The latest to target Naidu in this regard is none other than his own sister-in-law Daggubati Purandeshwari. The former Congress minister, now a BJP leader, addressed a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah questioning the actions of Chandrababu Naidu, whose TDP is an ally both at the Centre and in the state, to encourage defections.

She pointed out that the AP Chief Minister not only encouraging defections but also inducting defectors into his ministry would send the wrong signals to the people about the BJP itself encouraging defections.