Three senior YSR Congress party leaders, who resigned from the party in the recent past, are joining Jana Sena Party in the presence of deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan at his Mangalagiri party office on Thursday.
Former minister from Ongole – Balineni Srinivas Reddy, former government whip from Jaggayyapeta – Samineni Udaya Bhanu and former MLA Kilari Rosaiah, along with their followers in big numbers, are joining the Jana Sena Party.
Well, defecting from one party to another to safeguard their political interests has become common for politicians these days. But if there is a bigger agenda in jumping the fence, it calls for debate.
Sources said the main reason for Samineni Udaya Bhanu defecting to Jana Sena Party is to get protection to his close relative Donthireddy Vasudeva Reddy, former managing director of the AP State Beverages Corporation Limited (APSBCL), who is neck-deep involved in alleged liquor scam.
It is learnt Vasudeva Reddy’s brother-in-law is married to Udaya Bhanu’s daughter. It was a love marriage and Vasudeva Reddy used Udaya Bhanu’s clout in the YSRCP to get into the key position in the Jagan government.
Within a couple of days of the TDP and its allies came to power, a case was registered against Vasudeva Reddy for allegedly destroying key evidence, and taking away documents, and hard disks related to the alleged liquor scam from the APSBCL head office, hours after the election results.
Now, the only option for Udaya Bhanu to bail his son-in-law out of jail is to dump the YSRCP and join the NDA. Since he was till recently a bitter critic of TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, he cannot join the TDP and hence, he chose to join the Jana Sena Party.
There is a talk that Udaya Bhanu is being admitted into the Jana Sena Party only after getting an assurance that Vasudeva Reddy would turn an approver in the liquor scam, so that the government can fix the YSRCP top leaders.
Similarly, Balineni is also joining the Jana Sena Party, not only to protect his political interests, but also safeguard the business interests of his associates in Visakhapatnam.
Apparently, Jagan had cancelled the contract given to one of Balineni’s close associates in Vizag and so, the former minister is now planning to get it revived by joining Jana Sena, sources said.