It has been five years since former Union minister Y S Chowdary, also known as Sujana Chowdary, deserted the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite being nominated to the Rajya Sabha by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.
The reasons for his defection to the BJP are an open secret – he has faced allegations of financial irregularities and defaulting on bank loans. Thus, he sought refuge in the BJP to evade investigation by central agencies.
However, there was speculation that it was Naidu who had dispatched Sujana Chowdary, along with fellow TDP leader C M Ramesh, to the BJP to lobby for the TDP with the national BJP leadership, given several pending cases against Naidu himself.
Despite being in the BJP and praising the Narendra Modi government, Sujana refrained from launching any direct attacks on the TDP or Naidu, although some of his party colleagues were critical of Naidu. He even supported the TDP's stance on issues like Amaravati.
With the state assembly elections approaching, Sujana played a role in restoring ties between the BJP and TDP. Now that the alliance has been formalized, he openly supports the TDP and sometimes behaves more like a TDP leader than a BJP one.
For instance, there were images of Sujana Chowdary campaigning for himself in Vijayawada (West) assembly constituency and TDP candidate Kesineni Chinni in Vijayawada parliamentary constituency, wearing "yellow" scarves with the lotus symbol, rather than saffron scarves representing the BJP.
Moreover, on Saturday, Sujana Chowdary organized grand celebrations for the 74th birthday of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu at the BJP office in Bhavanipuram, Vijayawada. He cut a large cake amidst cheers from TDP workers to mark Naidu's birthday.
Sujana went beyond expectations in praising the TDP chief. He stated that it was a historical necessity for Naidu to become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh again in order to end the state's anarchic rule and establish a Rama Rajya.
“YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy ruined the state by asking for just one chance. The people have realized their mistake. It is everybody’s responsibility to make Naidu the chief minister again if Amaravati is to be developed as the capital and law and order restored in the state,” he asserted.