YSR Congress party, which is quite euphoric over the Praja Sankalpam padayatra commenced by party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday, appears to be receiving shocks with one leader after the other quietly leaving the party, thanks to some ugly politicking by the ruling Telugu Desam Party.
According to latest reports, YSRC is going to lose a key leader in Vizianagaram district in a day or two. Party MLC Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy is all set to quit the party and join TDP.
He has been dilly dallying on quitting the party for quite some time, but finally, he succumbed to the pressure tactics of HRD Minster Ganta Srinivasa Rao, at the behest of party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
If Swamy joins the TDP, he will be the second important YSRC leader to defect to the ruling party, the first one being Bobbili MLA RVSK Rangarao who later became minister. Swamy has stronghold in Vizianagaram town and can lead the party on his own here.
In fact, Swamy resigned from the YSRC coordinator post for Vizianagaram only a couple of months ago. He declared then that he will continue in the YSRC and the MLC post. But now, he is all set to take a plunge into the TDP.
Along with Swamy, many other councillors of the town may also join TDP. Apparently, the ruling party is planning to weaken as much as it can during the padayatra of Jagan.
Kolagatla clearly told the party leadership that he was forced to resign due to internal differences with some leaders in the party. Obviously, he was referring to senior leader Botsa Satyanarayana, as he had openly opposed Botsa’s admission into the YSRC.
Swamy was not happy with Jagan for ignoring him and giving too much importance to Botsa.
