As the selection of YSR Congress party candidates by its president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is creating ripples in the party, many disgruntled and discarded leaders are preparing ground to jump into either Telugu Desam Party or Jana Sena Party.
While the revolt of the YSRCP leaders against their own party is definitely a plus point for the opposition parties, they are also creating an embarrassing situation for the TDP and Jana Sena, in case of their defection to these parties.
The issue is learnt to have come up for discussion at the meeting of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan held at the residence of Naidu at Vundavalli on Saturday night.
Jana Sena can welcome any number of leaders from YSRCP, as it is facing a bankruptcy of strong leadership in various districts.
In fact, there is a talk that Pawan Kalyan has reportedly asked Naidu to field some of the TDP candidates in the name of Jana Sena in some constituencies, where it has no strong leaders.
But the same is not the case with the TDP, which already has strong leadership in every constituency. In fact, Naidu is said to be struggling to allocate seats to Jana Sena, where the TDP has strong contenders for the MLA seats.
Since both the parties have come to an understanding on alliance, the contenders from the TDP are reconciled to the fact that they may have to do some sacrifice for Jana Sena for the sake of alliance.
However, if the TDP wants to accommodate defectors from the YSRCP, it might have to face a strong revolt from the constituencies, where the defectors may ask for seats and it might ultimately prove counter-productive for the TDP.
Like for instance, in Penamaluru constituency, there is already disgruntlement brewing in the local TDP leadership following the reports that sitting YSRC MLA Kolusu Parthasarathy is all set to join the TDP. Former MLA Bode Prasad may revolt against the party, if Naidu prefers Parthasarthy.
A similar situation prevails in several other constituencies. So, at the Saturday’s meeting, Naidu and Pawan decided to go cautious in admitting leaders from the YSRCP and not to promise them party tickets before joining.
“Unless the defecting leaders are very strong and have no anti-incumbency, we can consider giving them tickets. Others can be admitted without any conditions. If there are any potential leaders, they can be promised other posts and positions like MLC tickets and Rajya Sabha nominations, once the TDP-Jana Sena combine comes to power,” a party leader said.