YSRCP convinces Balineni to shun Magunta

Ongole: The YSR Congress Party high command is said to have successful in pacifying the sulking sitting MLA of Ongole and influential leader in Prakasam district, Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, to abandon MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy.

Former minister Srinivasa Reddy has been facing a tough time in the YSRCP for a couple of years. As the discussion for the probable candidates for the Assembly elections started a few months ago, he is said to have put his proposal before the party demanding the Ongole Assembly seat to him, the MP seat to Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and his recommended candidates in a few other constituencies. He tried to convince the party that Srinivasulu Reddy and he were a winning team and would take the responsibility of ensuring victory in other seats in the district.

However, the party high command offered the Ongole MLA seat to him and ordered him to forget about others. Since then, several rounds of discussions between the party, Srinivasa Reddy and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy were held, but there was no outcome until the YSRCP released three lists with names of candidates. At one stage, YSRCP tried to get rid of Srinivasa Reddy too by considering the candidature of other leaders.

Meanwhile, there was speculation about him being in touch with the Jana Sena Party if his party didn’t heed his demands. He is said to have convinced the Jana Sena to reserve Ongole MP candidature to the Magunta family from TDP, as it helped him win the MLA seat easily. In the meantime, the YSRCP senior leaders tried to iron out differences between the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his relative Balineni Srinivasa Reddy many times, but the MLA was said to be stubborn over the seat of sitting MP.

While the Jagananna housing scheme is implemented throughout the state, in only Ongole it has not yet started. Though the officials identified land and spent Rs 40 crore on levelling and taking up infrastructure works, court cases on the land stalled the procedure. Srinivasa Reddy told the people that unless he distributed pattas to about 20,000 families in the town, he wouldn’t be contesting in the elections 2024. Since then, he has demanded the government to sanction about Rs 200 crore to procure private land and distribute it to the poor and eligible beneficiaries and to help them construct houses.

The sources in Tadepalli reveal that the recent meeting between Jagan Mohan Reddy and Srinivasa Reddy was fruitful. They say that Jagan convinced Srinivasa Reddy to contest from Ongole as MLA, by fulfilling his promise to the public. The Chief Minister asked the MLA to take the offer or forget the seat for himself too. Realising that the situation is deteriorating, Srinivasa Reddy accepted the offer, and the government is said to have released Rs 180 crore for land procurement on Wednesday night.

On the other hand, a family member of Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy said that they are confident about contesting the Ongole MP seat on the YSRCP ticket. In the worst-case scenario, the family member said that they have also made arrangements to contest the ticket from another party, but they are waiting for the fourth list of YSRCP to make the crucial decision.