Visakhapatnam North MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao to defect to BJP?

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), after being drubbed in the 2019 Assembly elections, has been witnessing several key leaders defect to other parties. Earlier this year, Rajya Sabha members TG Venkatesh, CM Ramesh, Sujana Chowdary, and Garikipati Mohan Rao had joined BJP. And if the recent reports are anything to go by, Visakhapatnam North MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao might be the latest leader to leave the Chandrababu Naidu-led party to join BJP.

Reportedly, Ganta Srinivasa Rao flew to Delhi to meet senior BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday. The TDP leader also met Sujana Chowdary and CM Ramesh, giving rise to speculations that he might soon shift loyalties to the BJP. As per sources, Ganta is further likely to take along a few more leaders from the TDP with him to join the national party.

It may be noted that the TDP MLA, a few months earlier, rubbished rumours that had claimed he would quit TDP. “There have been several speculations made on me on social media. This is not the first time that such speculations have been centred around me. Such rumours were circulated before the elections, during the polls and also after the results were declared. They will be spread in the future as well,” Ganta Srinivasa Rao said while discrediting the reports back then. However, the Visakhapatnam leader has not responded on the recent reports yet.

Reacting to the reports, BJP MLC PVN Madhav said, “As of now, these are just speculations. There are no attempts from our side to pull in people to our party. However, we would welcome anyone who is looking to join BJP.”

On the other hand, TDP’s official spokeswoman Sadineni Yamini too, who was an active critic of the opposition before the elections, has resigned from the party.