Now that the YSR Congress party led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy faced an unprecedented debacle in the just concluded elections, it is nothing but natural that some of the party leaders would look for greener pastures to protect their political and business interests.
Already, a couple of leaders like former minister Ravela Kishore Babu quit the party realising that they have no future for them in the party at least for the next five years.
Some other leaders who lost the elections have started blaming Jagan and the coterie around him for the defeat.
According to the latest reports doing rounds in the social media, at least a couple of YSR Congress party MPs are contemplating defecting into the Bharatiya Janata Party to safeguard their interests.
The YSRCP has four MPs in Lok Sabha – Chetti Tanuja Rani from Araku (ST) constituency, Y S Avinash Reddy from Kadapa, P Mithun Reddy from Rajampet and Maddila Gurumurthy from Tirupati (SC) constituency.
Of them, according to the rumours, Avinash Reddy and Mithun Reddy might jump into the BJP.
While Mithun Reddy has his own business interests, Avinash Reddy is facing the charges from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case related to the murder of Jagan’s uncle and former MP Y S Vivekananda Reddy in March 2019.
Since the Telugu Desam Party is now part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), there is every possibility that it would bring pressure on the centre to target these two MPs. So, the best way to avoid such targeting from the central investigative agencies is to join the BJP.
There is also a talk that Jagan himself might have asked Avinash and Mithun to jump into the BJP, as it would help him, too, to wriggle out of the cases; just like TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu who had planted Sujana Chowdary and C M Ramesh in the BJP in 2019.
There were also speculations that even Tirupati MP Maddila Gurumurthy might defect to the BJP, but he stoutly denied such rumours.
“There is no question of deserting the YSRCP and I shall remain loyal to Jagan,” he told GreatAndhra.
