Ayyana says ‘no’ to Ganta Srininvasa Rao

Visakhapatnam: Ports and infrastructure minister Ganta Srininvasa Rao might have not taken a decision on whether to join the TD but his opponents in the opposition party had already started raising red flag to his entry.

Rao’s bête noire in TD, party’s politburo member, Ch. Ayyana Patrudu said Ganta Srinivasa Rao’s entry will be an ‘unfortunate’ thing to happen, if he joined their party.

Patrudu said Ganta had criticised TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu many times after he quit their party and joined the PRP. “How can he join back our party? I leave it to Naidu’s decision whether he would re-induct Ganta, despite the latter levelling charges of corruption against him,” Patrudu told reporters at the district collectorate.

Further, Ayyana Patrudu said Rao has always diminished the prospects of political parties, whichever he entered.

“When he was in the TD, our party suffered a set back in Vizag. Then he joined the PRP, which has sunk into oblivion. Now he is in the Congress, which is in dire straits in Seemandhra. Congress will face rout in Seemandhra,” the TD politburo member said.

The scathing attack by Ayyana Patrudu on Ganta comes at a time when the speculations are rife in political circles that Rao is likely to quit the Congress and join the TD.

Ever since the minister started opposing the Congress decision on bifurcation of the state, there was speculation that he would quit the Congress and join either the YSRC or the TD.

Ganta Srinivasa Rao entered politics as a TD MP. Patrudu also lambasted Congress senior leader and former minister Dharmana Prasad Rao for taking a decision to join the YSRC even while having criticised its president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy earlier.