It has become a habit these days for industrialists-turned-politicians belonging to opposition parties to defect to the ruling parties in order to safeguard their business interests.
We have seen such leaders like Rajya Sabha members - Sujana Chowdary, T G Venkatesh, C M Ramesh and Garikapati Mohan Rao, all having business interests, quitting the Telugu Desam Party and jumping into the Bharatiya Janata Party soon after the loss of the TDP in the recent elections.
By joining the BJP, they are managing to get away from raids by central investigating agencies like CBI, Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate.
Another former TDP MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, representing Narsaraopet parliamentary constituency, was also planning to defect to the BJP some time back.
He had met the top BJP leaders including Amit Shah in the past, but he did not take any decision for reasons known only to him.
Following the latest raids on his residences and offices in Guntur, Vijayawada and other places, the talk of his defection to the BJP has started doing rounds in the media circles again.
Apparently, even the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh, too, is gathering evidences of Rayapati’s alleged misappropriation of funds pertaining to Polavaram project by fudging the accounts and bribing the bigwigs in the then TDP government.
Under these circumstances, the only way Rayapati can wriggle out of the mess is to join the BJP. When asked about the possibility, the former MP said he had no immediate plans to defect to another party. But he did not rule out of the possibility.
“I am not quitting the TDP and joining the other parties for now. But it might happen in future,” Rayapati said.
