In a battle to gain control over Reddy-dominated Rayalaseema, Kurnool district seems to be falling to Telugu Desam party.

An important member S V Mohan Reddy, representing Kurnool city Assembly constituency is crossing over to ruling party. According his aides, Mohan Reddy is joining the TDP on May 7 in the presence of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu in Vijayawada.

Already sitting YSRC MP SPY Reddy (Nandyala) joined TDP sometime back while Kurnool MP Butta Renuka is yet to announce her decision. But everybody suspects that she is not with YSRC.

SV Mohan Reddy comes from a war-lord’s like family from Allagadda area in the district. His father S V Subbareddy was agriculture minister in Chandrabu Naidu’s cabinet in his first stint as chief minister in 1994.

Mohan Reddy’s brother -in -law and Nandyala MLA Bhuma Nagireddy deserted YSRC and joined TDP last month along with his daughter Akhila Priya, MLA from Allagadda.

Sources said Mohan Reddy is peeved because Jagan had not taken him into confidence in deciding Kurnool as the venue for his three-day fast scheduled to commence from May 16.

With this the number of MLA Jaganmohan Reddy lost in the past three months rose to five. In the 2014 election, Kurnool district emerged stronghold of YSR Congress after Kadapa. While TDP won only one seat in Kadapa district out of 10, the party won 11 seats in Kurnool district out of 14. Despite the wave the yellow party createed elsewhere in the state, it could win just three seats in Kurnool district, one among them is the Pathikonda represented by deputy chief minister KE Krishnamurthy.

YSRC won with comfortable majority while TDP with slender margin. The constituencies won by YSRC are Aluru, Adoni, Mantralayam, Kodumur, Kurnool, Nandikotkur, Srisailam, Nandyal, Allagadda, Panyam and Dhone Assembly seats besides Kurnool and Nandyal parliament seats.

Recently Kodumur MLA Mani Gandhi, who won with highest majority of 52,384 votes, quit the party sometime back while Srisailam MLA Budda Rajasekhar Reddy joined TDP last week.

Now only six MLAs are left with YSRC . If sources are to be believed, all are likely to fall prey to the magic of ‘operation akarsh’ of Naidu and his son Lokesh Naidu.