YSRCP suffers a major setback in Chittoor

Chittoor: Giving a big jolt to the ruling YSRCP in Chittoor, sitting MLA Arani Srinivasulu aka Janagalapalli Srinivasulu is all set to join the Jana Sena party in the next three to four days.

He met JSP chief Pawan Kalyan in Hyderabad on Sunday and had deliberations with him on the political scenario. Srinivasulu was denied the YSRCP ticket to contest the coming Assembly elections and the party preferred MC Vijayananda Reddy in his place.

The sitting MLA who represents the dominant Balija community in the constituency got deeply disappointed with the party’s decision. However, it was speculated that he would be considered for the Rajya Sabha nomination and his followers stated that he was assured a berth in the upper house of Parliament.

Even that did not happen with which the entire Balija community was upset and expressed its anger at the party. Some leaders from the community have even convened a press conference in Chittoor and asked the party to reverse its decision and do justice for Srinivasulu. They maintained that by ignoring the Balija leader to choose another one from Reddy community the party has resorted to a grave injustice which they could not digest and also resolved to teach the party a lesson.

Srinivasulu was silent since then and did not make any public appearance but confined to internal deliberations with his well-wishers and close circles to chalk out the future course of action.

Though Jangalapalli made his political foray with the TDP, he later joined the Praja Rajyam Party when it was established and even contested the Assembly elections in 2009 on that party ticket but lost the poll battle against Congress candidate CK Babu by a close margin of 1,710 votes.

When the PRP was merged with the Congress, he joined the TDP again and served as its district president. As the party denied him a ticket in 2014, he shifted loyalty to YSRCP and contested only to lose again. However, in the 2019 elections he emerged victorious with a decent margin of 29,968 votes.

Now, amidst severe pressure from his own community and followers, he perhaps decided to join the Jana Sena party and met Pawan Kalyan.

However, the motive of his joining the JSP was not clear as the TDP has already announced its candidate from Chittoor as part of alliance and there may not be any change in that. It was learnt that Srinvasulu might get an assurance for some other equivalent post when the alliance comes to power.

In view of the current development, the YSRCP has immediately suspended Jangalapalli Srinivasulu from the party. The party central office has issued a communique on Sunday evening to this effect.