In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling YSRCP got another rude shock with its senior leader and Gudur MLA has taken a dig at the BJP. Gudur MLA Vara Prasad joined BJP on Sunday at New Delhi, in the presence of Union Minister Anurag Tagore and National General Secretary Vinod Tawde.
Interestingly, he has joined BJP after the party cleared his name last night as its Tirupati Lok Sabha candidate. In 2019 elections, he contested from here as Praja Rajyam candidate, but was defeated. But, he had won the same seat in 2014 election as a YSRCP candidate.
But in the 2019 polls, YSRCP chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy fielded him from Gudur assembly and had won in the polls. But since then some gap developed with the chief minister, as he was not offered a ministerial berth. Moreover, he became angry after not re-nominating him in the present election, by fielding Muralidhara Rao from here as the ruling party candidate.
For the last few days, he has been bargaining with TDP, Jana Sena and BJP leaders to contest in the polls. As the alliance allocated Tirupati seat to BJP, he directly contacted top BJP leaders and got their approval to contest as their candidate.
He is a former IAS officer and emerged as a good lobbyist. Incidentally, the neighboring Nellore Lok Sabha constituency also, YCPs Rajya Sabha member Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy is contesting as TDP candidate. He too recently quit YSRCP and joined TDP.
In Nellore district already three YSRCP MLAs joined TDP. Thus, in the former combined Nellore district, where YSRCP had won all the seats in 2019 elections, is not facing a severe crisis of leadership. As a last resort, Jaganmohan Reddy forced party parliamentary group chief Vijayasai Reddy to contest for Nellore Lok Sabha.
With the last minute entry of Vara Prasad into the party, two more retired IAS officers, who were already in the party and aspiring for Tirupati seat, shattered their hopes. They are Dr Dasari Srinivasulu, who has been in the party since his retirement seven years ago and practically residing in Tirupati and former Karnataka chief secretary Ratna Prabha, who lost in the by-poll.
