In a surprise move, YSRCP Rajya Sabha member and party general secretary V Vijayasai Reddy on Friday announced his decision to quit politics and said he will be resigning from his parliament membership on January 25.
Further, he said agriculture will be his future.
Reddy, who is also the party's floor leader in the Upper House, said he is not joining any other political party.
Reddy, 67, is currently serving his second term as Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh. He still has more than three years left in his term.
He is the fourth YSRCP Rajya Sabha member to resign from the party after its rout in the 2024 assembly elections.
"I am quitting politics. I am resigning from the Rajya Sabha membership tomorrow, (January) 25th. I will not join any political party. I am not resigning hoping for any position, benefits, or money. This decision is completely my personal one. There was no pressure. No one influenced me," he said in a post on 'X'.
Reddy, who was one of the key figures in former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP in the state, said he was indebted to YS Rajasekhar Reddy family, which has supported him for four decades and three generations.
The announcement by Reddy, came at the time, when Jagan is in London on a personal trip.
He also thanked YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for giving Rajya Sabha opportunity twice and also the latter's wife YS Bharati for elevating him to a higher pedestal.
"I worked with honesty as parliamentary party leader, Rajya Sabha floor leader and party (YSRCP) national general secretary for the benefit of the party and the state. I worked as a bridge between the Centre and the state," he said.
Delving on ruling Telugu Dedam Party, Vijayasai Reddy noted that he only differed with it politically and did not have any personal differences with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's family.
Moreover, he highlighted that he always had friendship with Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan.
Additionally, the veteran YSRCP leader thanked the people of the state, friends, colleagues and party cadres for honouring him in his long political journey.
"Special thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for encouraging me for almost nine years, giving me immense strength and courage, and giving me recognition in the Telugu states," the 67-year-old Reddy said.
Recently, the Enforcement Directorate grilled Vijayasai Reddy in Hyderabad pertaining to the acquisition of Kakinada Deep Water Port by Aurobindo Realty & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, which allegedly is connected to his relative.
With the exit of Vijayasai Reddy, YSRCP will lose another MP and will be left with only seven MPs in the upper house.
YSRCP Rajya Sabha members M Venkata Ramana, B Mastan Rao Yadav and BC leader R Krishnaiah resigned in the recent past.
Krishnaiah and Yadav subsequently joined the BJP and TDP, respectively, and retained their seats in the Rajya Sabha by-elections.
After Reddy's exit, the seat is expected to go to the ruling NDA in AP in the imminent by-election, owing to its overwhelming majority.
The TDP-led NDA has a strength of 164 legislators in the 175-member Assembly, while the opposition YSRCP holds 11 seats.
Currently, the NDA constituent Janasena has no representation in the Upper House.
One of Vijayasai Reddy's last acts as a parliamentarian was to submit his dissent against various provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill at the meeting of the parliamentary committee scrutinising the proposed law.
Sources said Reddy filed his dissent on 40 of the 44 clauses that the government has proposed as amendments in the bill.
Reddy also proposed his own amendments.
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