With senior leader and long-time TDP hand Shobha Haimavathy’s departure, the TDP is left without a leader in Srungavarapukota assembly constituency in North Andhra. Shobha Haimavathy has sent her resignation to TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. The constituency is key to the TDP performance in the Visakhapatnam MP seat too. Haimavathy’s daughter Sobha Swati Rani is already in the YSRCP.
Sobha played a key role in the North Andhra politics. She became an MLA in 1999 from the Srungavarapu Kota ST seat. She was brought into politics by TDP heavyweight Lagudu Simhadri. During the TDP regime, she had worked as Telugu Mahila state president, state TDP executive secretary, incharge for Anakapalli, Vizag and Kakinada parliamentary seat. For years, she was the incharge for SrungavarapuKota assembly constituency. Her daughter Sobha Swati Rani was the ZP chief for some time.
However in 2009, the constituency was designated a general seat. Since then, Chandrababu has been allocating this seat to the Kolla family. As a result, Sobha Haimavathy began feeling ignored in the TDP. Gradually, she began losing the party posts too. She felt completely isolated in the party from 2017. Initially, her daughter went out of the TDP and now she too has left the TDP. She is likely to announce her future plan of action soon.
With this, the TDP has lost another key leader in north Andhra. It has already lost two of its MLAs in Vizag district. Several other leaders are now looking towards the YSRCP. The party is now limited to some pockets represented by party’s major leaders like Atchen Naidu, Rammohan Naidu and Kala Venkat Rao.