Former Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Daggubati Purandeshwari has been entrusted with an important responsibility in the party, in the wake of reports that she might quit the party and take a plunge into the YSR Congress party headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
Purandeshwari was made the chairman of BJP state manifesto committee in Andhra Pradesh and former chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao was made her deputy as convener.
Other members of the committee are P Vijaya Babu, MLC P N V Madhav, Dasari Srinivasulu, Shaik Mastan, Paka Satyanarayana, K Kapileswaraiah, P.Sanyasi Raju Murali, Sudhish Rambhotla and Prof. D A R Subrahmanyam.
The appointment of Purandeswari comes amid speculation that she was planning to quit the party to join YSRC along with her son Hitesh Chenchuram and husband Daggubati Venkateswara Rao.
There were reports that if Purandeswari shifts her loyalty to the YSRCP, she will be fielded as Vijayawada Lok Sabha candidate by the party.
However, the saffron party sought to pre-empt her entry into the YSRC by giving her such an important post in the party.
The BJP, which has been targeting at the defeat of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu rather than coming into power on its own, has been witnessing exodus of senior leaders from the party.
Party MLC Somu Veerraju insisted that Purandeswari will continue in the party.
“Purandeswari will continue in the BJP in future also. All those reports of her joining YSRCP are just false propaganda, being carried out by some political parties to tarnish her image and for their political mileage,” he said.
