Nellore: In a bid to prevent him from leaving the party, the TD leadership has assured the MLC post to Mr Anam Jayakumar Reddy, brother of former finance minister and YSRC leader, Mr Anam Ramanarayana Reddy.
A senior leader of TD said that Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu himself promised an MLC seat to Mr Reddy during an interaction with him recently at Vijayawada.
Mr Jayakumar Reddy was aspiring for a Nellore rural seat and had started working in the segment after former minister Mr Adala Prabhakar Reddy and minister Narayana had assured a ticket to him.
However the Chief Minister had instructed Mr Adala Prabhakar Reddy to contest from the seat last month and this sudden decision without giving him any clue, had caused severe distress to Mr Jayakumar Reddy. He expressed his anguish to the press a few days back and publicly asked the party to reconsider the decision.
Though Mr Prabhakar Reddy and TD district unit president and MLC Mr Beeda Ravichandra tried to pacify him, Mr Jayakumar Reddy kept away from the party activities for the last 10 days.
Finally, party leaders convinced him and took him for a meeting with the CM at Amaravati on Thursday. All seems to be well, as Mr Jayakumar Reddy will now join the team campaigning for Mr Prabhakar Reddy in Nellore rural segment, a TD leader said.
Incidentally, Mr Jayakumar Reddy is the second leader in TDP after Nellore Mayor Mr S. K. Abdul Aziz to receive an assurance for a MLC post from the CM. The CM had promised a MLC seat to Aziz in similar circumstances last month and had assured him of the the post once again during the late night meeting at Amaravati, sources in TDP said.
Meanwhile confusion over TD candidates for Udayagiri, Sullurpeta and Kovur as well as Nellore parliament seat has been continuing even after a meeting of the leaders aspiring for the assembly seats, with the Chief Minister on Thursday night.
Apart from sitting member, Mr Bollineni Rama Rao, Additional Secretary (GAD) at Amaravati, Mr Maddineni Ashok Babu and a contractor Kavya Krishna Reddy have also been aspiring for the Udayagiri seat.
In case of Kovur, at least three senior TD leaders are staking their claims for the seat in addition to sitting legislator of the segment, Mr Polamreddy Srinivasulu Reddy. The aspirants include Mr Pellakuru Srinivasulu Reddy, Mr Chjerla Venkateswar Reddy and Mr Yarramreddy Govardhan Reddy.
With respect to Sullurpeta seat, former minister Mr Parasa Rathnam is after the seat but other senior leaders of the segment such as Mr Venati Ramachandra Reddy and Mr Ganga Prasad are in favour of a fresh candidate.
District party leaders are hoping that CM will decide on candidates for the parliament and the three segments within the next couple of days.
