Vijayawada: In another significant development, industrialist Dasari Jai Ramesh, who had a long association with TD since the party’s inception in the 80s, met YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday. He is expected to join the YSRC soon.
Mr Jai Ramesh, who runs power transmission and distribution equipment making company Vijai Electricals, is a prominent Kamma face in Krishna district. Former minister Daggubati Venkateswar Rao who also joined YSRC recently accompanied Mr Jai Ramesh to meet Mr Reddy on Friday.
Mr Jai Ramesh, contesting on a TD ticket for the Vijayawada Lok Sabha segment, lost to Congress candidate Parvathaneni Upendra in 1998. Ramesh will be fielded by YSRC from the Vijayawada Lok Sabha segment.
Mr Reddy was looking for a wealthy Kamma face to take on Kesineni Srinivas, the sitting MP, who is expected to be re-nominated by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to contest from Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat.
In 2014 too, Mr Reddy fielded a wealthy Kamma candidate Koneru Prasad. However he lost to Nani. Soon after meeting the YSRC chief, Mr Jai Ramesh told reporters, “I have decided to walk with Jagan and met him. Chandrababu Naidu deceived me after assuring me the Vijayawada Lok Sabha and Gannavaram Assembly segment tickets. I helped Naidu a lot in TD during his hardships. I personally helped Naidu become the CM.”
On his joining YSRC, he said, “Jagan has immense popularity and there is a YSRC wave across the state. There is a lot of corruption taking place in the TD government and for any work 20 to 30 per cent commission has to be paid. In TD rule, every MLA earned around Rs 50 to Rs 100 crore in the last four-and-a-half years.”
