YSR Congress party MP from Kurnool Butta Renuka, who has informally defected to the ruling Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday, seems to have decided to play safe till the next elections.
Unlike her senior colleague from Nandyal S P Y Reddy, Renuka did not join the TDP formally by sporting the yellow khanduwa and take the official TDP membership, but declared her support to the Chandrababu Naidu government. She parried all the questions about her joining the TDP formally.
At one stage, there were reports that Renuka had deferred her formal entry into the TDP because of bad days – Amavasya and allied tithis and would join the party at a big public meeting to be held later at Kurnool which would be attended by Naidu.
However, her legal advisors reportedly told her not to make such an attempt lest she is disqualified by the Lok Sabha Speaker.
It is learnt Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is actively considering the applications for disqualification of defected MPs, which might happen in a month or two. So, it is better to remain a YSRC MP on record but could support the TDP openly.
And for the TDP, it does not make much of a difference if she is technically in YSRC, as long as she supports Naidu.
