Is there more to it than meets the eye in dropping Balineni Srinivas Reddy from the AP Cabinet? Highly placed sources say that Balineni was dropped mainly because he was his relative and YS Jagan wants to cut all his relatives, who are in politics, to size. Jagan clearly wants to keep his family away from politics, say sources.
Balineni’s wife is TTD chairperson YV Subba Reddy’s sister. YV Subba Reddy has married YS Vijayamma’s sister. Thus, Balineni is a relative to YS Jagan from his mother’s side. Of late, the relations between Jagan and his mother have deteriorated. Sources say they are not even on talking terms. Vijayamma feels that Jagan has not given YS Sharmila her due.
Due to these differences, Jagan clearly did not want anyone close to Vijayamma in his cabinet. He felt that Balineni should be dropped in the reshuffle. He is also said to be of the opinion that Balineni’s wife is responsible for the differences that have cropped up between him and his sister. So, he wanted to get rid of Balineni. Sources say it is only a matter of time when even YV Subba Reddy is shunted out.
Though Balineni has reconciled to the loss of the ministerial post, he is still said to be unhappy. Sources close to him say that he is mulling resignation from the MLA’s post. Sources say several other MLAs who did not get ministries and those who have been dropped are also unhappy and there are suspicions that they could make a common cause against Jagan.
