The defection of four Rajya Sabha members to the Bharatiya Janata Party gave a rude shock to Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been away in Europe on a vacation.
But the YSR Congress party leaders have not been sparing him from their attack and are spreading the theory that all the four MPs – Sujana Chowdary, C M Ramesh, Garikapati Mohan Rao and T G Venkatesh -- had defected to the BJP only with the blessings of Naidu.
YSRC general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy tweeted that the defection of four MPs to the BJP was a ploy of Naidu, who was trying to get closer to the BJP again.
“He is trying to get his route into the BJP cleared by sending his four MPs into the BJP so that he can wriggle out of the cases against him,” Sai Reddy said.
Another minister in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s cabinet Shankar Narayana, too, suspected that it was Naidu who had encouraged them to defect to the BJP.
“They are all benamis of Naidu,” he said.
What is ironical is that the YSRC leaders who have been accusing the four MPs of defecting to the BJP at the behest of Naidu to escape from the CBI, Income Tax and ED cases, are moving closely with these MPs.
There were reports from parliament that Sai Reddy had held one and a hour talks with CM Ramesh in Rajya Sabha in the presence of K V P Ramachandra Rao.
Sources said Sai Reddy also had played a key role in the defection of the MPs into the BJP.
On Friday morning, too, Sai Reddy along with Sujana and Ramesh was found having breakfast together in Parliament along with top BJP leaders. But politically, he has to throw the blame on Naidu to further demoralise him!
