Ever since four Rajya Sabha members from Telugu Desam Party defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party en masse, speculations were doing rounds that TDP MP from Vijayawada Kesineni Srinivas alias Nani would also jump the fence and join the BJP sooner or later.
In fact, speculations were doing rounds from the day Kesineni met senior BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari on June 28 to take the latter’s blessings.
His rejection of TDP whip post in Lok Sabha through a Facebook message lent credence to these speculations.
Even BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana also hinted at Kesineni’s possibility of joining the BJP stating that he could be in touch with the party’s central leadership.
The speculations did not end even after Kesineni subtly denied these rumours, saying he would join the BJP only if party president N Chandrababu Naidu joined the YSR Congress party.
However, Kesineni’s harsh comments against four defected TDP Rajya Sabha members – Y S Chowdary, CM Ramesh, TG Venkatesh and G Mohan Rao – on Saturday gave clear indications that he is not going to join the BJP.
Taking pot shots at the four MPs on his Facebook page, Kesineni ridiculed their contention that they had joined the BJP in the larger interest of the State.
“The Union budget presented in Lok Sabha on Friday made no allocation to the state. Now, people can understand well the intentions of the four MPs in switching over to the BJP — whether it was in their own interest or in the interest of the state,” he said.