Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Polit Bureau member and former Member of Parliament Nama Nageswara Rao joined the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in the presence of party working president K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday.

Mr. Rao lost the Assembly elections from Khammam Assembly constituency contesting as the candidate of the Mahakutami of Congress, TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti to the TRS candidate Puvvada Ajay. Within hours of joining the party, he has been nominated as the party candidate from Khammam Parliament constituency.

The entry of Mr. Rao into TRS was not expected till a few days ago as they were rumours that he would join the Congress and contest as Khammam candidate.

His exit has literally hurt the TDP in the district as earlier Sattupalli MLA, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, too expressed his desire to join the TRS after winning on the TDP ticket.

Considered to be one of the richest politicians in the country, he represented the Khammam constituency in Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014 when the Telangana movement was at its peak. However, he lost in 2014 to YSRCP candidate, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who later joined the TRS and was expecting nomination as sitting MP.