In a surprising development, senior YSR Congress party leader and chairperson of Andhra Pradesh women’s commission Vasireddy Padma resigned from her post on Thursday, triggering a debate within the party.
Padma, who is considered to be a trusted lieutenant of YSRCP president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, mentioned in her letter that she was resigning from the post to make herself available for doing better service for the party.
She was all praise for Jagan for undertaking several schemes and programmes for the uplift of women in the state and ensuring security to womenfolk. She said she had done her bit to provide justice to the women in distress.
But Padma’s resignation for the sake of the party came as a big surprise, as her name was nowhere in the reckoning for any of the elections in the past, though she was interested in electoral politics.
Sources said Jagan asked her to be prepared to contest the elections this time, though there is no clarity yet as to which constituency she would contest from.
There is a talk that she might be fielded from Mylavaram or Jaggayyapeta assembly constituencies, though he had already picked up candidates there.
Apparently, Jagan thought Vasireddy Padma, a Kapu leader, might be useful to the party as it might create a positive impact on the Kapu community, which is believed to be going with the Jana Sena Party led by power star Pawan Kalyan.
It remains to be seen whether Jagan will really give the party ticket to Padma to contest the elections, or use her services for the party in the elections to appease the Kapu community.
