In a career spanning more than three and a half decades, Dharmana Prasada Rao emerged as a leader with good oratory skills, wit and experience that only a few others can match. His current position is exactly south of all the above facts making him stand at the crossroads of confusion. Once a hugely popular leader in Srikakulam district, Dharmana is now just another MLA in YSRCP who is suffering from identity crisis.
What’s more bitter for him is that his own brother Dharma Krishna Das who entered politics with his support was given the Ministry of Revenue and Deputy CM status. When juniors like Seediri Appalaraju of Palasa and Pamula Pushpa Srivani from Kurupam were given ministries, the latter was given the plum Deputy CM post too, Prasad Rao’s supporters were shocked and expressed anguish over the treatment of their leader. It is evident that Dharmana even expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the bifurcation of districts issue in a meeting held at Srikakulam under the leadership of YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Vijaya Sai Reddy.
Back in 2010, when YS Jagan differed with the Congress Government and founded YSRCP, he asked the then supporting MLAs to resign and join the party. Krishna Das resigned to his MLA post and joined YSRCP bandwagon while Prasada Rao remained loyal to the Congress. When Krishna Das contested as MLA in the 2012 by-elections from Narasannapeta, Dharmana Prasada Rao who was helming the R&B portfolio in the Kiran Kumar Reddy’s cabinet made Dharmana Ramdas contest against Krishna Das. Even though Krishna Das won in that election, it is now evident that Jagan has not forgotten what Dharmana did or said.
Eventually, according to changed political equations, Prasad Rao joined YSRCP and won MLA elections in 2019 from Srikakulam. In the light of all the above facts, it is now clear why he is being ignored and denied ministerial berth in the cabinet. It is a hard fact that Dharmana must give up his aspirations for the moment and finish this term as an MLA.
