YSR Congress party president and leader of opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is understood to have made it clear to his party leaders that he would not entertain any defectors after February 20.
He virtually set February 20 as the deadline for the leaders from other parties who were willing to join the YSRC.
He reportedly gave instructions that those who joined before the deadline will only get the party ticket to contest the elections.
Even if some leaders want to join the party at a later stage, they would not be considered for giving the party tickets to fight the coming elections.
According to party sources, Jagan will be leaving for London on February 20 to spend some time with his daughter Varsha Reddy, who is pursuing her graduation in economics at London School of Economics.
In fact, he was supposed to visit his daughter last month itself, but dropped out at the last moment as she was busy with her examinations and would not be able to spend time with her parents.
Jagan will be back to Hyderabad only after five or six days and by that time, the election atmosphere would be charged up and he would have hectic schedule for electioneering.
So, he wants to finish off the selection of candidates at the earliest. As such, there would be no place for defectors at the later stage.
It is learnt that at least 20 leaders from ruling TDP are seriously planning to shift loyalties to Jagan's party sooner or later.
