Nellore: Speculations are rife over TD fielding industrialist and noted philanthropist Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy of Nellore as its fourth candidate for the Rajya Sabha in the ensuing election.
Mr Reddy recently re-signed from his positions in the YSRC Central Committee and District Coordination Committee as also primary membership of the party.
He said that he would join Telugu Desam soon. He has already had one or two rounds of discussions with the TD top brass, joining TD now being only a formality.
There have been rumours about Mr Reddy entering the fray as the fourth candidate for TD, a possibility that a senior TD leader did not rule out.
According to the leader, the CM had summoned Mr Reddy a few days ago probably to discuss the contest.
TD can win only 3 RS seats and YSRC one seat, given their present strength in the assembly, but they are taking their chance, banking on YSRC legislators being ready to migrate to TD, the senior leader said, adding that his party leaders were in touch with nearly 10 legislators from YSRC.
Besides, money was not a constraint for Prabhakar Reddy, he added. He also said that the TD high command was hell-bent on preventing the YSRC from securing the one Rajya Sabha seat that it was confident of winning.
YSRC district convener and Sarveypalli legislator Kakani Govardhan Reddy ruled out the possibility of TD's fourth nominee winning the seat. He said that it was going to be a cakewalk for YSRC to bag one Rajya Sabha seat: they had 50 legislators while they needed only 36 members to win the seat, he pointed out.
Pointing to Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to be held in June, he ridiculed TD for migrations.
Alleging that TD was offering more than Rs 5 crore to MLAs to defect, Mr Govardhan Reddy maintained that they would not succeed in their mission.
