The exodus from YSRCP continues with former minister and veteran leader from Ongole, Balineni Srinivasa Reddy who is also a relative of former chief minister YS JaganMohan Reddy, quitting the party. He is likely to join NDA coalition partner Jana Sena and will meet its president and deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan tomorrow.

Reddy has sent his resignation letter to the YSRCP president where he cited personal reasons for quitting the party. Significantly, as speculation mounted, he was called for a discussion with YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at Tadepalli. However, the meeting was not fruitful although he was offered key posts by the party chief. A five-time MLA, he had been in YSRCP since its inception and his resignation has come as a big jolt to the Opposition party.

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Last month, two Rajya Sabha MPs of YSRCP, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and Beeda Mastan Rao, quit their seats as well as the party paving the way for TDP to enter Rajya Sabha once again. A party MLC Pothula Suneetha has also quit her seat as well as her party. A new entrant from TDP she now wants to return to her old party. Another key leader and former deputy chief minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas who is popularly known as All Nani also resigned from the party posts, a few days ago.

Krishna had been aggrieved after he was dropped from the Cabinet in 2022 since other leaders who had come in later were retained by Jagan Mohan Reddy. In order to pacify him he was appointed as the regional coordinator for Chittoor, Nellore, and Tirupati but quit later on to concentrate on Ongole.

Following his defeat in Assembly elections Balineni had demanded thorough cross-checking of VVPAT with EVMS in some of the polling booths but had complained about getting inadequate support from his party. Moreover, he was uncomfortable with the increasing clout of Rajya Sabha MP and another relative of the former chief minister, YV Subba Reddy. Following his defeat Balineni had stayed away from party programmes. In his resignation letter, he mentioned that politics and family relations should be kept separate.