Senior TDP leaders from Kadapa, Kandula Rajamohan Reddy and his brother Kandula Sivananda Reddy quit the party and joined Congress Party in the presence of the Chief Minister Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and the PCC chief Mr D. Srinivas. The induction of Kandula brothers into the Congress was in fact announced yesterday afternoon itself by party leaders Mr Veera Siva Reddy and Mr Tulasi Reddy. Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam chief Mr Chandrababu Naidu announced that the party Rajya Sabha member and veteran politician Dr M.V. Mysoora Reddy would be the party's candidate for the Kadapa LS segment.

The Kandula brothers, who were Congressmen for decades, had fallen out with YSR and had joined the Telugu Desam in 1994. Mr Rajamohan Reddy had lost as a TD candidate from Kadapa Lok Sabha in 1996, 1998 and 1999. He was defeated twice by YSR and once by Mr Vivekananda Reddy. Mr Rajamohan Reddy was a member of the TD politburo for some time and Mr Sivananda Reddy was the in-charge of Telugu Desam for the Kadapa Assembly segment.

It is very likely that Mr Rajamohan Reddy would be the Congress party's obvious choice because of his experience as a TD candidate thrice from the same seat and because of the clout that the "Kandula" family enjoys in Kadapa, Kamalapuram and Pulivendula Assembly segments, which are part of the Kadapa LS constituency. Now by taking Kandula brothers in to its fold Congress has succeeded in blocking TD's Mysoora Reddy from laying inroads in to Congress vote bank. At the same time, it has put check on Jagan Mohan Reddy garnering split votes from TDP vote bank. In other words, Kadapa Lok Sabha seat by-election may get reduced to a straight fight between Congress and Jagan Mohan Reddy, say the observers.