BJP hand seen in Kanna’s last-minute cancellation

Vijayawada: Former minister and senior leader Kanna Lakshminarayana joining YSR Congress was cancelled at the last minute, sparking speculation in political circles over the reasons.

Lakshminarayana was supposed to join in YSRCP on Wednesday morning. But he cancelled his meeting with YSRCP president YS Jaganmohan Reddy citing high blood pressure, though originally he chose the auspicious muhurtham a week ago. 

There are rumours in the political circles over BJP’s role in the episode. One version doing rounds is that the BJP high command questioned the top leadership of YSRCP over encouragement of defections from BJP.

Many Congress leaders like Kanna Lakshminarayana who joined BJP have turned pessimistic over the prospects of the party in the next year’s elections after its break up with the TDP and the rising tide of agitations for SCS.

Several leaders like Kanna, Katasani Rambhupal Reddy, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, P Vishnukumar Raju, Erneni Sitha Devi are all set to join in other parties. Sources say even former minister Daggubati Purandeswari is also not willing to take the responsibilities of the state party leadership.

Apart from these leaders, some others are said to be making plans to join the TDP in near future.In this backdrop, the BJP top leadership understood the situation.

So far, the party has been optimistic on its prospects in the state for increasing its vote share from 4 per cent to 15 per in the last four years. It also geared up to double its strength in the next one year. But the current developments have upset its apple cart. However, Kanna Lakshminarayana has not clarified yet on his next muhurtham to join YSRCP.