Chiru joins Congress, hails Rahul as future PM

HYDERABAD: Actor-turned-politician K Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam formally merged with the Congress on Saturday with its founder-president K Chiranjeevi taking the ruling party’s membership at the office of All India Congress Committee in Delhi.Chiranjeevi, an MLA from Tirupati, filled up an enrolment form given by the Chittoor DCC president. PRP MLAs and state leaders will take Congress membership at the state Congress headquarters here on August 22 in the presence of PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana and chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.Besides Rahul Gandhi, Union minister and AICC general secretary in charge of AP affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union ministers S Jaipal Reddy and MM Pallam Raju, senior leaders Janardhan Dwivedi and Ahmed Patel, MPs V Hanumantha Rao, KVP Ramachandra Rao, T Subbirami Reddy and JD Seelam, state ministers Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Chiranjeevi’s brother Naga Babu, brother-in-law Allu Arvind, PRP MLAs and several others were present.“I feel proud to be a Congressman. It is a memorable occasion for me to take the party membership in the presence of Rahul Gandhi who is seen as the future prime minister. I decided to join a national party like the Congress to do social justice. I will strive to strengthen the party in Andhra Pradesh. I will do my best to discharge the responsibility assigned to me by the party.  It is a historical day for me to take the membership on Rajiv Gandhi’s birthday. I wish  speedy recovery of Sonia Gandhi,” he told newsmen later.