Senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former legislator Kadiri Babu Rao, who is considered to be the right hand of senior actor and Hindupur MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna, is also getting ready to jump the fence into the ruling YSR Congress party.
Babu Rao, who represented Kanigiri assembly constituency in the past, is likely to meet YSRC president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy most probably on Tuesday and make a formal entry into the YSRC. This will definitely be a big setback to the TDP and a major plus point for the YSRC, say analysts.
Though he is from Kanigiri, the former MLA was denied the ticket from this constituency due to defection of Mukku Ugra Narasimha Reddy from YSRC, who wanted Kanigiri ticket.
So, Naidu forced Babu Rao to contest from Darsi assembly constituency in Prakasam district in 2019 assembly elections, in place of sitting MLA Siddha Raghava Rao who was forced to contest as MP from Ongole.
While Babu Rao had lost to YSRC candidate Maddisetti Venugopal in Darsi assembly polls, Siddha Raghava Rao lost to Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy in Ongole LS polls. Since then, Babu Rao has been sulking and keeping away from the TDP activities.
Though there were reports almost two months ago that Babu Rao would defect to the YSRC, he denied the same saying he had come into politics because of Nandamuriu Balakrishna, who had been his close friend since childhood.
“I will continue my journey with Balayya, come what may. Please don’t believe rumours,” Babu Rao said then. But now, he is learnt to have changed his mind and decided to defect to the YSRC.