Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu had very recently said in a party meeting that he would fix YSR Congress chief Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy before the 2019 elections as well as strengthen the TD in some Assembly segments where it was weak then.
According to sources close to Mr Naidu, he was not initially interested in luring YSRC MLAs into the party, but after the YSR Congress decided to get involved in caste related agitations including the Kapus' stir in East Godavari district, he realised that he would have to fix Mr Reddy politically by encouraging mass defections into the Telugu Desam.
“Jagan is underestimating my calibre, he will never know how I am going to hit him,” Mr Naidu had said.
Telugu Desam members started spreading rumours in political circles that Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy was likely to be jailed again as the courts would deliver their verdict against him before the 2019 elections, awarding a jail term exceeding two years and barring him from contesting in the elections.
Mr Naidu had asked all his ministers, MPs and MLAs to stay in touch with YSR Congress legislators and bring them into the TD fold.
The CM and his son, Mr Lokesh, decided to weaken Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy by first encouraging defections. Later, steps would be taken by the government to fix him legally, said sources.
Mr Naidu’s trusted aide and Rajya Sabha member Mr C.M. Ramesh said, “We are flooded with requests from YSR Congress MLAs to join TD. The entries will continue for some time; even during the Assembly Budget Session starting from March 5, some YSR Congress MLAs will rebel against Jagan in the House itself, you all witness the game."
The game of defections was started by Mr Naidu when he openly admitted YSR Congress MPs Mr S.P.Y. Reddy and Ms Kottapalli Geetha in 2014.
It had been reported in these columns that when Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao had asked his father and Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, what to do with the 'requests' from Congress and TD legislators to switch sides to the TRS, the CM had told him he had advance information that Mr Naidu would induct a few Congress MLCs into the TD.
