The indecisiveness of former Anakapalle MP and former minister Konathala Ramakrishna in chalking out his future course of action all these days seems to have cost him dearly in Andhra Pradesh politics.
Having been expelled from YSR Congress party after the 2014 elections for his alleged sabotage in the Visakhapatnam parliamentary elections, Konathala has been dodging on deciding his political future.
Had he joined the Telugu Desam Party then or lobbied for making a return into the YSRC, his fate would have been different by now.
Instead, he imagined too big of himself and maintained a high profile. He tried to sustain his political image by floating North Coastal Andhra Development Forum and fight on the local issues.
At times, he sounded anti- against the TDP government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu by writing a series of letters, but at the same time, giving hints that he is closer to the ruling party.
When the election season began a few months ago, Konathala should have directly approached Naidu and joined the TDP even before the seat allotment exercise has begun. Or he should have sent feelers to YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy that he would come back to the party. But he did not do either. He thought he would get an open invitation from the TDP or YSRCP again.
As the elections are now fast approaching, Konathala met Naidu a couple of times and asked for the TDP ticket for Anakapalle Lok Sabha seat.
Naidu was willing to take him into the party, but he had already made up his mind to give the Anakapalle ticket to somebody else – Adari Anand, son of Visakha Dairy chairman Adari Tulasi Rao. The TDP chief promised that he would give Rajya Sabha ticket to Konathala.
Not satisfied with the assurance given by Naidu, Konathala has now started sending feelers to YSRC stating that he was also willing to stage a comeback into the party.
Jagan is also willing to take him back, but there is no guarantee that Konathala will get the party ticket for Anakapalli LS seat there also.
Moreover, as Konathala’s political rival Dadi Veerabhadra Rao also returned to YSRC just a couple of days ago and got an assurance for his son Ratnakar’s ticket. So, what the fate of Konathala would be in the YSRC is yet to be ascertained.
It remains to be seen whether Jagan prefers Konathala to Dadi.