Why did the four YSR Congress party MLAs cross-vote for Telugu Desam Party candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha in the elections for the state legislative assembly under the MLAs’ quota on Thursday?
The YSR Congress party has alleged that the four MLAs were bought by the TDP for a hefty sum. According to YSRC general and advisor to the state government (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Naidu had spent a huge amount to purchase the four YSRC MLAs.
“We strongly believe that Naidu had paid not less than Rs 15-20 crore to each of the four MLAs to buy their votes in the MLC elections. Otherwise, there is no other reason why our party MLAs should vote for the TDP candidate,” Sajjala said.
Sajjala said the suspended MLAs might have received an assurance from TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on party tickets in next year’s assembly elections.
“We also believe that each of them might have been paid Rs 15-20 crore from Naidu for indulging in cross-voting,” he alleged.
As expected, the YSR Congress party on Friday suspended the four members - Anam Ramanarayana Reddy from Venkatagiri assembly constituency, Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy from Udayagiri, Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy from Nellore (rural), and Undavalli Sridevi from Tadikonda constituency, who had voted for Anuradha in the MLC elections.
Sajjala said the party had a mechanism to identify who had voted in favor of the TDP candidate.
“After conducting an internal inquiry, we have concluded that these four MLAs had voted for the TDP and party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered their suspension from the party,” he said.
Sajjala said the party had fielded candidates for all seven MLC seats only after assessing the strength of the party.
“But Naidu has lured four of our party MLAs with a huge amount of money,” he said.