YSRCP MLAs Vunnamatla Eliza, Varaprasad Rao quit ruling party in Andhra Pradesh

Both MLAs quit the ruling party after they were denied tickets to contest the upcoming assembly polls.

Amaravati: Two YSRCP MLAs Vunnamatla Eliza and V Varaprasad Rao on Sunday quit the ruling party after they were denied tickets to contest the upcoming assembly polls.

Eliza (63) representing Chintalpudi assembly contituency joined the Congress party in the presence of Y S Sharmila Reddy, president, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC).

"Chintalapudi YSRCP MLA Vunnamatla Eliza joined the Congress party. APCC president Y S Sharmila Reddy welcomed Eliza into the party by putting a scarf around him," said a release from the Congress.

As part of a massive reshuffling of YSRCP candidates by party chief and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, the ruling party chose Kambham Vijaya Raju to contest from the Chintalapudi constituency in the 2024 Legislative Assembly elections, reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC), replacing incumbent Eliza.

Varaprasad Rao quit the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led party to join the BJP in New Delhi after he was denied a ticket to contest the assembly election.

Rao (70) won on a YSRCP ticket from Gudur constituency in 2019.

Reddy chose Meriga Muralidhar to contest from Gudur, an SC-reserved constituency, in the 2024 polls.

In 2014, Rao, a former IAS officer, won the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat.

For the upcoming polls, YSRCP supremo has reshuffled candidates in 81 assembly and 18 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Elections for the Legislative Assembly comprising 175 seats and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh are scheduled on May 13 and the results will be declared on June 4.