For the last few days, the social media in Andhra Pradesh has been agog with speculations that senior Telugu Desam Party leader and Visakhapatnam (north) legislator Ganta Srinivasa Rao is all set to call it quits to the party and join the ruling YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
These reports said senior minister from north coastal Andhra Botsa Satyanaryana has done extensive lobbying for bringing in Ganta into the YSRC and YSRC leader in-charge of Viskahapatnam and Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Y V Subba Reddy also held talks with Jagan in this regard.
Though Ganta’s entry into the YSRC is being opposed by party general secretary and MP V Vijay Sai Reddy and former minister Avanti Srinivas, Jagan is understood to have given a green signal for the same.
So far, neither Ganta nor the YSRC gave any confirmation in this regard and the TDP leadership, too, has been maintaining silence over the same.
But on Sunday, the TDP has been circulating a video of Ganta in the social media, speaking at a meeting giving a categorical clarification that he won’t quit the party.
In the video, Ganta is heard saying he will sail with party president N Chandrababu Naidu as long as he is politics.
"I will remain the TDP and will strive for the victory of the TDP. Let the social media write whatever they want, but I will continue in the TDP," the former minister is seen saying in the video.
However, it is not clear when and where Ganta made the statement as the video clipping doesn’t give any clue about the same. However, another section of social media says the video could be three years’ old, probably of 2019.
Even after the TDP lost the assembly elections in 2019, there were reports that Ganta is planning to quit the party to join the YSRC and he had been staying away from party politics for a quite long time.
At one stage, Naidu also gave up on Ganta but the defection did not happen due to strong resistance from Sai Reddy and Avanti. There was no green signal from Jagan as well. At that time, Ganta made a statement that he had no plans to quit the TDP.
Perhaps, the latest video in circulation might have been made on that occasion. It is not known whether Ganta still sticks to that stand and stays back in the TDP or defect to the YSRC sooner or later.