AMARAVATI: Triggering speculation,
TDP leader and
Gannavaram
MLA
Vallabhaneni Vamsi
on Friday met chief minister Y S
Jaganmohan
Reddy at his residence.
Ministers Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao (Nani) and Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani) accompanied Vamsi.
Sources said Vamsi and the chief minister discussed the latest political situation in the constituency for nearly 30 minutes.
There has been speculation that Vamsi may join
YSRC
for long but he had denied the move. Vamsi’s sudden meeting with the CM has caught TDP circles off-guard.
Police had booked a case against Vamsi for distributing house sites with the forged signature of tehsildar before the elections. Vamsi denied the charges of forgery and said the police slapped the cases without verifying facts. He said he had never indulged his such practices.
Vamsi had met TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu two days ago and said he would remain in the party.
But Vamsi, of late, has not been taking part in TDP’s protest programmes against the government.
Earlier in the day, Vamsi met former Union minister and BJP MP Sujana Chowdary in Guntur. Vamsi has been in touch with Chowdary for long and the meeting gave rise to speculation that he might join BJP.
Vamsi stumped all the political pundits by rushing to the chief minister’s residence. Although, his close aides said that Vamsi had only explained about the false cases being foisted against him, YSRC circles believe that the TDP legislator had made up his mind to switch over.
Vamsi is believed to have been in touch with senior YSRC leaders for long as he had close association with minister Kodali Nani and Perni Nani. They had invited him to join the party even before the elections. His meeting with Jagan had further strengthened the speculation about his next move.
Meanwhile, the YSRCP leader in Gannavaram constituency, Yarlagadda Venkata Rao, who lost the seat to Vamsi, was upset at the CM granting time to Vamsi. Sources said that Venkatrao might move into TDP in case YSRC admits Vamsi.
However, Vamsi might have to quit to the assembly in case he wanted to join the ruling party as chief minister had announced that he would not take any sitting legislator from opposition without making them resign from the assembly.