YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy alleged several times in the past that Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had bought his party MLAs at the rate of Rs 20 crore each, besides promising many other benefits.
As many as 23 MLAs had defected from YSRC to the TDP in the last four years and one could have imagined how much money Naidu could have spent in “buying” the YSRC MLAs, if one were to go by the allegations of Jagan. The amount could be anywhere nearer to Rs 500 crore.But, the amount paid to the YSRC MLAs by the TDP leadership for defection into the TDP was much more than what Jagan had suspected, if the revelations made by YSRC MLA from Aluru in Kurnool district G Jayaram.
On Saturday, Jayaram dropped a virtual bomb shell on the TDP president saying Naidu had offered him a cash of Rs 50 crore, besides a ministerial berth in the state cabinet, if he shifted his loyalties from the YSRC to the TDP.
“But I told him that I am a committed leader of YSRC and so, there is no question of joining the TDP,” the MLA claimed.He alleged that his party colleagues late Bhuma Nagi Reddy and S V Mohan Reddy had taken the bait of the TDP president and defected to the TDP.
“But I did not. Following my rejection for defecting into the TDP, the Naidu government has started witch-hunting. The chief minister stopped releasing funds to my constituency for not defecting to the TDP,” he alleged.If Rs 50 crore was the amount offered to the YSRC MLAs for defecting into the TDP, then Naidu might have spent more than Rs 1000 crore on these defections!
