As elections are approaching many leaders are changing loyalties and shifting from one party to another. Of late, YSRCP is inundated with leaders from ruling TDP. As per the reports, latest in the list is TG Venkatesh and Kavuri Sambasiva Rao.
Kurnool MLA SV Mohan Reddy left the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), the party from which he won in 2014, and joined ruling TDP. He was given the assurance of ticket in next elections that time. However, he is facing competition for the ticket this time from TG Bharat, son of Rajya Sabha MP TG Venkatesh. Earlier there was news that Nara Lokesh, son of CM Chandra Babu Naidu has confirmed Kurnool ticket to SV Mohan Reddy. Then, Rajya Sabha MP TG Venkatesh expressed his dissatisfaction on that news. TG Venkatesh is still confident of getting ticket for his son TG Bharat. However, there have been rumors in media circles that if TG Bharat is not given ticket, he will defect into YSRCP along with his son. TG Venkatesh was in TDP in 1999. He moved to Congress in 2004. He came back to TDP in 2014.
Similarly, former member of parliament Kavuri Sambasiva Rao is also planning to shift his loyalties to YSRCP, as per reports. Kavuri was once a very senior leader in Congress. He won as MP for 5 times. He has been a member of the 8th, 9th, 12th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabha of India. He was even the Ministry of Textiles, with cabinet rank, for India in UPA Government. Once he was permanent invitee for Congress Working Committee. But none of this stopped him to desert party after it’s debacle in 2014 and he joined BJP. As BJP also lost it’s ground in the state, now he is planning to join YSRCP. It is learnt that Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, who recently joined YSRCP is coordinating between Kavuri and Jagan. He is planning to contest as MP from Eluru again, as per reports. He represented this constituency earlier.
Tail piece:
Whenever a leader changes his political party, journalists use the phrase “shifted loyalties”. However, it seems, this phrase is not suitable for AP politics as there is no guarantee that the leaders who are changing the party will have their loyalty to this new party at least for a few months. For example, TG Bharat or Kavuri or Daggubati – all of these may not wait for even minutes to again change the party if they know that Jagan is not giving them ticket in 2019. So there is no concept of “loyalty” at all in current politics.