AP Assembly speaker Thammineni Sitaram on Tuesday accepted the resignation of TDP MLA and former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao. The speaker took the decision as the former minister had sent his resignation letter on February 12, 2021.

Srinivasa Rao also met the speaker in person and requested him to accept the resignation. As the resignation was in the speaker format and the MLA himself had requested the speaker in person, the speaker accepted the resignation.

It may be mentioned here that the state government had also written to the speaker to disqualify the four suspended MLAs and two MLCs for defecting to the party. The ruling YSRCP had sent a letter to the speaker requesting him to disqualify MLAs Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy and Undavalli Sridevi who were suspended from the party.

The party suspended these MLAs for anti-party activities during the Rajya Sabha elections. It was alleged that these four MLAs voted for the TDP candidate, Panchumarthi Anuradha, against the party whip.

As Rajya Sabha elections are due in March this year, the ruling party took the decision to write to the Assembly speaker and the council chairman seeking disqualification of the four MLAs and two MLCs.

Three members, C M Ramesh of BJP, Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy of YSRCP and Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar of the TDP are scheduled to retire in April this year. Elections to fill these three vacancies are expected to be held sometime in March this year.

The party also requested chairman of Legislative Council, Koyye Moshen Raju, to suspend two MLCs from the council for floor crossing. The party said that MLC, C Ramachandraiaha had joined the opposition TDP, while another MLC C Srinivasa Rao alias Vamsikrishna Yadav, joined the Jana Sena. The ruling YSRCP wanted the council chairman to disqualify the two members for floor crossing.

Why is TDP MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao so silent these days? No media addresses… no party interactions… he has not even been meeting the party workers. He is confined to himself these days. Political leaders are finding this long silence quite intriguing.

After all, Ganta is known to be expressive and outgoing. He has his friends in the media and vast connections in politics. Yet, he has been keeping an extremely low profile these days. In fact, his resignation from the assembly is pending with Speaker Tammineni Sitaram. He is neither retracting it nor pressing for accepting it.

Sources say that in view of his attempts to leave the party and join the YSRCP, the TDP has written him off. No leader of worth is trying to meet him. But those close to Ganta Srinivasa Rao say that he has a litany of complaints. He is upset that the party’s top leadership is favouring his rival within the party –Ch Ayyanna Patrudu. His constant complaint is that Lokesh, who is focusing on Vizag and Bheemili these days, is in touch with leaders like Ayyanna, his close relative and MVVS Murthy’s son Bharat and other leaders, whom Ganta considers as his rivals.

Ganta is also said to be upset at the reports that Lokesh might choose to contest from Bheemili constituency in 2024. While there is no confirmation about this as of now, Ganta feels threatened and is worried. Ganta feels that he has to vacate the seat if Lokesh asks for it. Hence, he is said to be keeping silent and keeping away from party activities. But, Ganta is not exactly welcomed into any other party. The YSRCP has not rolled out a red carpet for him when he tried to get into the party. The BJP did hold some meetings, but then abandoned the idea of taking him in. So, Ganta, who has never suffered a defeat since 1999, is feeling checkmated politically.

Vizag North MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao has a reputation for always choosing the party in power. After the 2019 polls, Ganta distanced himself from the TDP and maintained a very low profile since then. Later, there were reports that he might join the YCP or the BJP but that did not materialise.

As the agitation against the Visakha Steel privatisation was rising, Ganta has sent his resignation to the Assembly in the Speaker’s format. What remains is just for the YCP regime to accept his resignation. Ganta has even announced that he would not even contest the bypoll just as a token of his solidarity for the agitation.

Now, another interesting development took place that has created political ripples in the State. Ganta Srinivasa Rao personally attended the TDP review meeting held by Atchannaidu in Vizag today. This is the first time that Ganta attended such an internal party meeting since 2019. The meeting discussed the deteriorating health condition of TDP Vizag Parliament President Palla Srinivasa Rao who was on indefinite hunger strike against the steel plant privatisation.

By doing so, Ganta seems to have taken a calculated risk of losing any chance to join the YCP in future. Analysts say that Ganta is a very shrewd politician and he would have weighed all pros and cons for the sake of his own political future.

Indian Bank has moved a step closer to auction the assets of former minister and TDP MLA Ganta Srinivas Rao.

The bank will be auctioning some of the assets of Ganta Srinivas Rao to recover total outstanding dues, including interest. Ganta Srinivas Rao’s Pratyusha Company owes Indian Bank Rs 248 crore, including interest. The bank has decided to auction assets in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam on November 25 via e-auction. The bank is likely to auction six properties in Visakhapatnam, Rangareddy district, East Godavari, and Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. The Indian Bank first-served notices in 2016 to clear the dues, but Pratyusha Company could not meet the deadline to clear the outstanding.

The bank has served notices to auction properties of Pratyusha Resources and Infra, P Raja Rao, representing Pratyusha Resources and Infra, P V Bhaskara Rao, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, and KB Subrahmanyam. The notices were served under the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Estates and Enforcement of Security Interest Act.

Ganta Srinivasa Rao had stepped down as director of the company a few years ago. One of his properties has been already attached.

Ganta Srinivas Rao is making attempts to jump the TDP ship to sail with the YSRCP. However, Ganta’s entry into the YSRCP was being blocked by Rajya Sabha MP Vijaysai Reddy and tourism minister Avanthi Srinivas. The three leaders have locked horns over several issues, including corruption charges and the arrest of TDP leaders by the Andhra Pradesh government. Avanti at one point even commented that Ganta will be the next in line to be arrested after TDP leader Atchannaidu and a host of other TDP leaders.