Chiranjeevi party PRP merges with Congress | Megastar Chiranjeevi meets Sonia Gandhi | PRP joins Congress
Telugu cine star and chief of the Praja Rajyam Party, Chiranjeevi, on Sunday announced an unconditional merger of his two-year-old party with the Congress.
Emerging from a brief meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Chiranjeevi ruled out any quid pro quo. He denied that he would be made a Union Cabinet Minister or his MLAs would join the N Kiran Kumar Reddy Government in Andhra Pradesh. However, the popular actor said, “It is up to the Congress leadership to assign me suitable responsibilities.”
Chiranjeevi was accompanied out of 10 Janpath by Union Law Minister M Veerapa Moily.
Efforts to get in PRP into the Congress were made last week with Sonia Gandhi flying with Defence Minister A K Anthony to meet the actor in Hyderabad. Anthony’s visit was kept such a secret that even Moily, considered close to rebel leader Jagannath Reddy, was not kept in the loop .
With 18 MLAs, the ex-PRP chief is seen as a powerful Kappu leader who has many uses. It is not just his MLAs who will provide the number strength to the AP Government that faces an imminent exit of 22 MLAs, but Chiranjeevi’s strident anti-Telengana stand will help bolster the cry for a united AP as the Centre, at present, is in no mood to concede Telengana at this juncture.
