Senior Telugu Desam Party leader and Andhra Pradesh minister for higher education Ganta Srinivasa Rao is said to be fretting and fuming at party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu these days.
Reason: Naidu is bringing pressure on Ganta to vacate Bhimili assembly seat in Visakhapatnam to make way for his son and IT minister Nara Lokesh.
Apparently, Naidu who has been desperately searching for a safe seat for Lokesh to step into the state assembly and he found Bhimili is the ideal constituency for the same.
Naidu’s decision has obviously upset Ganta, as he was not even consulted before the party president took the decision. What is more, it was leaked to the media much before it was discussed in the party.
Ganta has been nurturing Bhimili constituency for the last five years and has taken up several developmental works, making it a strong forte of the TDP. Moreover, Ganta has also a lot of business interests in the constituency.
Now, with Naidu taking a sudden decision to field his son Lokesh from Bhimili, it is all over again for Ganta. He has to now choose another constituency to contest.
It is learnt Naidu has asked Ganta to choose among Visakhapatnam (north) or Gajuwaka or Chodavaram, where he will have to face a tough contest from YSR Congress party.
Ganta is understood to have lamented before his friends that Naidu has made him a sacrificial goat for the sake of his son.
Had he known about Naidu’s plans much earlier, he would have taken a decision to take a plunge into another party. Since it is the election time, he is hesitating to defect to other parties.