The defection of four Rajya Sabha members from Telugu Desam Party – Y S Chowdary, T G Venkatesh, C M Ramesh and G Mohan Rao into the Bharatiya Janata Party recently prompted many other party leaders at the lower level also to quietly jump into the saffron party.
Dealing yet another blow to the beleaguered TDP, senior leader and former MP from Narsaraopet Rayapati Sambasiva Rao is also all set to quit the party and join the BJP.
According to sources, Rayapati reportedly met party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday and conveyed his decision to join the party along with his son Ranga Babu and other followers.
He said he had no other option but to defect to the saffron party in order to safeguard his political future as well as business interests.
According to sources, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav reportedly came to the residence of Rayapati in Guntur a couple of days ago and requested him to join the BJP.
The former MP also reportedly hosted dinner for Ram Madhav and both of them held negotiations for over two hours.
Apparently, the BJP is eyeing senior leaders with strong cadre base and also financial strength.
It is of the view that by admitting leaders like Rayapati, it could also win over the Kamma community.
At the same time, the BJP is trying to lure the Kapus through party state president Kanna Lakshminarayana.
Rayapati reportedly told Ram Madhav said he would come to New Delhi shortly after settling some issues in the constituency. Later, he met Naidu and discussed his future course of action.
The former MP, who had represented Congress four times in the past, joined the TDP before 2014 elections.
He has a strong cadre support across the state, irrespective of the party he was in. His son Ranga Babu is presently TDP state secretary.
In fact, Rayapati gave a hint last year itself that he might join the BJP. He quietly met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the state politics.
His entry, however, was strongly resisted by Kanna Lakhsminarayana then. After that, Rayapati was given the TDP ticket once again in 2019. So, he dropped the plans to join the BJP.
