Though he had not resigned to Congress like Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy of Nellore, he has been expressing loyalty to Jagan and criticizing the Congress. He is most likely to contest as the YSR Congress candidate in the 2014 elections. Now Congress High Command has decided to field Jaya Prada to knock out the Jagan group MP with her glamour.
Jaya Prada recently met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and reportedly asked for Rajahmundry ticket. Even the sitting MP and Sonia loyalist Undavalli Arun Kumar expressed his willingness to leave the seat to anyone of High Command’s choice. But it is learnt that Sonia Gandhi had decided not to disappoint Arun Kumar who was close to her late husband Rajiv Gandhi. Arun Kumar volunteered as the translator to the late Prime Minister during his visits to the North Coastal region and became close to the family. Later he became a loyal follower of YSR. When YSR died, he chose to remain loyal to Congress and not Jagan.
After considerable thought, Congress managers pitched on this bright idea of stunning the YSR Congress loyalist MP Sabbam Hari. Hari is anyway not going to seek Congress ticket in the 2014 elections. So as far as Congress is considered it is a vacant seat and by giving the ticket to Jaya Prada no one is going to be disappointed. More over, there are not many takers for the ticket as Sabbam Hari has strong winning chances. If Jaya Prada wins the seat, it would be a stunning blow to the morale of the YSR Congress. It would also mean an additional seat, a seat that was presumed lost, for the Congress.
Jaya Prada initially tried for YSR Congress ticket from Rajahmundry. There are two reasons for Jaya Prada not joining the YSR Congress. The first is the party did not promise her Rajahmundry ticket. TDP MLC Boddu Bhaskara Rama Rao left the party and joined the YSR Congress. It was then said that he joined the party on an assurance that the Rajahmundry MP ticket would be given to his son Venkata Ramana. The second reason is, Amar Singh, Jaya Prada’s mentor and the estranged associate of UP strong man Mulayam Singh Yadav advising her not to join a regional party. He in fact reportedly advised her to join BJP, assuring that NDA would be coming to power in 2014. However as BJP has no vote in AP, Jaya Prada chose to meet Sonia Gandhi and sought ticket say sources.
