There have been several reports in the past that former Telugu Desam Party MP and Anantapur strongman J C Diwakar Reddy might switch over to the Bharatiya Janata Party in order to safeguard his business interests.
Reason: the YSRC government had hit him virtually below the belt by digging out all his illegal activities in transport services and also cement industries. Several cases were filed against him, his brother Prabhakar Reddy and his followers in Tadipatri.
But, Diwakar Reddy for some reasons preferred to stay back in the TDP. Now and then, he surfaced in the media and makes wild allegations against the Jagan government and also takes pot shots at Chandrababu Naidu.
After a brief lull, the talk of Diwakar Reddy shifting his loyalties to the BJP has picked up once again. Recently, Rajya Sabha member from Kadapa C M Ramesh, who defected from the TDP to the BJP, had gone to Tadipatri and had a meeting with Diwakar Reddy in the latter’s farm house.
Surprisingly, CM Ramesh was accompanied by TDP legislative council member B Tech Ravi to Diwakar Reddy’s farm house. Three of them had a closed door meeting for more than four hours.
It is not exactly known what transpired at the meeting, but it led to the speculations that Ramesh might have invited Diwakar Reddy into the BJP as part of strengthening the BJP In Rayalaseema.
However, TDP sources say it could be just a courtesy call, as Ramesh and Diwakar Reddy had been good friends.
“Diwakar Reddy himself had invited Ramesh and Ravi to his farm house for lunch and showed them the crops he had been growing in the fields around the farm house. They also discussed about Coronavirus situation in the country,” TDP sources say.
