Retired IPS officer and former joint director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) V V Lakshminaryana has been periodically telling the media that he is keen on contesting the next Lok Sabha elections from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
On Tuesday, too, Lakshminaryana told reporters that he would contest the Lok Sabha elections from Visakhapatnam. But he is not certain whether he would contest as an independent or from any other political party.
For quite some time, he has been sending feelers to various parties about his intention to contest the elections. In the last elections, he contested on Jana Sena Party ticket but after losing the battle, he quit the party.
So, he cannot go back to Jana Sena and ask for the party ticket. The options left before him are the Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Interestingly, he also got in touch with the Aam Admi Party leaders some time back.
But he knows pretty well that he has to choose a party which has the chances of winning the next elections and there is no point in joining one party or the other. That is why, he has been sending feelers to the TDP and the BJP.
“I have already disclosed my line of thinking. If any political party appreciates my thinking, I am ready to hold negotiations with it and contest the next elections on its behalf,” Lakshminarayana said.
But there has been no response from any political party so far.
“If I don’t get any chance to contest from any party, I will try luck as an independent. Time will alone decide my political future,” he said.
Sources said he has been in regular touch with TDP leader and Visakhapatnam (north) MLA Ganta Srinivas Rao and through the latter, he is lobbying with the TDP leadership. But whether party president N Chandrababu Naidu will take the risk of fielding him is debatable, say sources.