YSRCP in soup as Jagan's kin and senior leader Balineni Reddy quits party; to join Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena

Hyderabad: In a jolt and major embarrassment to former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the former minister and his close relative, Balineni Srinivas Reddy, had quit YSRCP on Wednesday.

Srinivas Reddy, who is YSRCP's senior leader in Prakasam district, had sent his resignation letter to Jagan stating that politics and family relations are two different aspects. Srinivas Reddy, a five-time MLA and twice minister, will be joining Jana Sena shortly.

He is expected to meet Jana Sena supremo and state deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan on Thursday. Srinivas Reddy, who is popularly known as Balineni and Vasu, had lost from the Ongole assembly segment in the May assembly elections.

He has been miffed with Jagan's style of functioning ever since he was removed from the cabinet in 2022, following the then chief minister's policy of rotating the entire cabinet after half of the YSRCP government's five-year tenure.

There were reports that Srinivas Reddy was also asked to shift to another assembly segment to contest than his traditional seat of Ongole. Later, after a lot of discussions, he finally managed to secure Ongole's seat but lost to a TDP candidate.

Srinivas Reddy is also unhappy with Jagan's choice for the Ongole parliament segment. Jagan fielded Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, who belonged to Chittoor district from Ongole Lok Sabha seat. Srinivas Reddy reportedly took offense at Bhaskar Reddy's meddling in the politics and activities in Ongole.

Srinivas Reddy was also a minister in YS Jagan's father, YS Rajasekhar Reddy's cabinet, during the united Andhra Pradesh days. After Jagan floated the party, he quit Congress and joined YSRCP. Srinivas Reddy confirmed on Wednesday that he is meeting Pawan Kalyan on Thursday and will soon announce his future course of action.

Srinivas Reddy joining Jana Sena would be a major boost to Pawan Kalyan's party, which has been looking at strengthening at the grassroots and occupying space in Andhra politics, which is dominated by two other regional forces, the TDP and YSRCP.