After Rapaka, TDP rebel MLA Maddali Giridhar claims he was negotiated with for MLC vote

GUNTUR: Close on the heels of Jana Sena rebel MLA Rapaka Varaprasada Rao’s sensational claims, TDP rebel MLA from Guntur West Maddali Giridhar too alleged on Monday that the opposition party leaders tried to negotiate with him too to buy his vote in the recent MLC elections.

Addressing the media in Guntur, he went hammer and tongs against TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for his unscrupulous practices to influence voting with monetary enticements. Claiming that some TDP leaders tried to negotiate with him for securing his vote in their favour, he said that a look at his mobile phone call list would reveal who those mediators were.

“Chandrababu Naidu owns the patent for conspiracies and backstabbing politics. We left the TDP as Chandrababu never treated us with respect. The TDP chief already has the history of buying out 23 YSRCP MLAs. We (the TDP rebel MLAs) have associated with the YSRCP purely because of our affection towards Chief Minister YS Jagan. Nara Lokesh is the reason for the TDP’s downfall. It is ridiculous to hear Undavalli Sridevi saying that she would fight for the Amaravati cause. Anyone who speaks with a forked tongue will lose the trust of the people,” he said.

Several YSRCP ministers and MLAs slammed Chandrababu Naidu for buying out the votes of four YSRCP rebel MLAs in the recent MLC elections.

Former Minister Perni Venkataramaiah aka Nani said that Chandrababu Naidu was synonymous with filth in politics and that buying out rival party legislators and selling himself out for political gains had been one of his old traits.

He said that people would not believe the suspended MLAs if they tried to speak like holy cows. Having resorted to cross-voting, they should not indulge in big talk. He challenged the suspended MLAs to resign from their posts and win their seats again on their own weight. He said that Undavalli Sridevi was parroting words from Chandrababu Naidu’s script.

Perni Nani also rubbished Anam Ramanarayana Reddy’s claims that he was briefed about the voting for the MLC elections.

YSRCP MLC Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad demanded a detailed investigation into Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘cash for vote’ brand of politics. Addressing the media at the YSRCP Central Office in Tadepalli on Monday, he said that Chandrababu Naidu’s long political career was marked with this trait, right from the infamous Viceroy Hotel episode to dethrone party founder NT Rama Rao, to the bribery fiasco targeting a Telangana MLC a few years ago, and now, to the latest episode influencing the YSRCP rebel MLAs in the MLC elections.