The presence of a senior Telugu Desam Party leader at a “Yagam” being performed by YSR Congress party MLA from Gudivada Kodali Nani at his residence raised a lot of heat and dust in the political circles on Saturday.
Senior TDP leader, former minister and presently chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Bank (APCOB) Pinnamaneni Venkateshwara Rao attended the “Satha Chandi Yagam” performed by Kodali Nani.
The objective of the yagam, according to Nani, was to seek divine blessings for YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy so that he could become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in the next elections.
Pinnamaneni has been a hard core TDP leader and is said to be very close to TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Naturally, his presence at the YSRC MLA’s yagam raised many an eyebrow. Though the TDP leader claimed that he had attended the yagam only for religious purposes as he believed in Goddess Durga and asked the party colleagues not to look at it in political angle, they are not convinced.
“When Nani has been saying openly that the yagam was intended to make Jagan as the next chief minister, how can Pinnamaneni say he went there to seek Goddess blessings? Surely, it will send wrong signals to the party cadre,” a TDP leader said.
They suspect that Pinnamaneni might have entered into some sort of secret deal with the YSRC and might be contemplating joining the opposition party.
What is more suspicious is that Pinnamaneni abstained from the TDP coordination committee meeting convened by party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
“So, there is definitely something fishy in his behaviour,” the TDP leader said.
