It looks like the days of senior Telugu Desam Party legislator and former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao in the party are numbered.
According to highly placed sources in the party, Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is planning to take disciplinary action against Ganta for defying the party line and endorsing the decision of YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to shift executive capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
Sources said Naidu told his party leaders in Guntur on Monday that a show-cause notice be served on Ganta, who represents Visakhapatnam (North) assembly constituency, seeking his explanation on his statement in support of the Jagan government’s decision.
“Before that, Naidu will make an effort to convince Ganta to fall in the line of the party, as he had done in the case of Gannavaram MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan. If Ganta does not change his stand, then he will be issued a show-cause notice and finally, he will be suspended,” a party leader said.
If that happens, Ganta will be the second MLA to get out of the TDP. May be, he will also seek a separate seat in the state assembly on the lines of Vamsi.
For quite some time, Ganta has been staying away from the party activities. He is also not taking active part in the debates in the assembly on behalf of the TDP. Though Naidu has been upset with Ganta, he could not dare say anything against him.
But since Ganta is openly supporting Jagan, Naidu will not hesitate to get rid of him from the party, sources said.