: The YSR Congress has announced the candidature of party general secretary V. Vijaya Sai Reddy for the ensuing elections to the Rajya Sabha.
YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy made the announcement after holding a meeting with the senior leaders at the party’s headquarters here on Thursday. A close aide of the YSRC president and the chief auditor of Mr. Jagan’s businesses, Mr. Sai Reddy has been into full-time politics ever since he was made the general secretary of the party. He has been overseeing the exercise to revamp the party from the grassroots level. Mr. Vijay Sai Reddy, according to YSRC leaders, filed his nomination in the morning. He is likely to be elected unopposed given the strength of the YSRC. It has around 50 members in the House after 17 of them defected to the ruling Telugu Desam Party. Elections had been notified for four seats in Andhra Pradesh and the TDP is expected to bag three seats easily as it had the support of the BJP as well as the MLAs who defected from the YSRC. Mr. Jagan said the selection of Mr. Sai Reddy had been made to send a signal that the party would give due recognition to the loyalists. Mr. Sai Reddy had been with the party since its inception. In spite of the pressure mounted on him to speak against Mr. Jagan in the “illegal cases” registered against the latter, he did not budge. Though his name was also included in the list of accused, he stood by the party.
The YSRC president accused TDP president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of buying the opposition MLAs by offering several allurements. “It is only a matter of time before Mr. Naidu dumps the defected MLAs,” he said.
