In yet another surprising development, prominent Kapu leader and former minister Mudragada Padmanabham, along with his family members, is all set to join the YSR Congress party in a day or two.
According to sources, senior YSR Congress leaders, under the instructions of party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, came in touch with Mudragada at his Kirlampudi village and held discussions with him.
It is learnt Jagan has agreed to give the party ticket to one of his family members from Pithapuram assembly constituency in East Godavari district, replacing Vanga Geetha, who has already been appointed as the party in-charge for the constituency.
Sources said Vanga Geetha, who presently represents Kakinada Lok Sabha seat, has got a call from the chief minister’s office in the evening.
“Jagan might ask her to drop out from the contest from Pithapuram. He might offer her another seat or give her an assurance to take care of her political future,” sources said.
In fact, there were reports in December last that Mudragada would be joining the YSRCP.
Jagan had sent former MLA Thota Trimurthulu to his residence to hold discussions, but Mudragada put several conditions for coming into the YSRCP – like a Lok Sabha seat for himself and an MLA seat for his son Challa Rao from Pithapuram or some other seat.
However, Jagan did not entertain his demands then and Mudragada openly declared that he has no interest in joining the YSRCP. Later, he made an attempt to join Jana Sena Party and was expecting Pawan Kalyan to come to his residence for talks.
But under pressure from TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, the Jana Sena Party chief ignored Mudragada.
On Thursday, he wrote a strongly worded letter to Pawan accusing the latter of compromising on the self-respect of Kapus and acting as per the directions of Naidu.
Within hours of writing the letter, Mudragada got the latest offer from YSRCP, sources said.
