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VV Lakshminarayana, a former joint director of the CBI, who was in the limelight for the investigation into the quid pro quo scam involving YS Jaganmohan Reddy and several bureaucrats, will fight the Lok Sabha elections from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on a Jana Sena Party ticket.
The IPS officer, who took voluntary retirement and has been testing the political waters, finally joined the Jana Sena led by filmstar Pawan Kalyan a few days ago, putting to rest speculation that he might join the Telugu Desam.
Meanwhile, the Jana Sena chief himself will contest from two Assembly seats — Bhimavaram in West Godavari, his hometown, and Gajuwaka in the Visakhapatnam district.
Lakshminarayana hit the headlines 7-8 years ago when the CBI investigated cases of alleged quid pro quo, money laundering and other economic offences and filed several cases against YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the Opposition leader in the AP Assembly. These events happened after the death of the then Congress chief minister, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, in a helicopter crash.
His son Jaganmohan Reddy clashed with Congress leadership and quit the party to launch the YSR Congress.
Jagan, as he is popularly known, had alleged that the 11 criminal cases filed against him in the CBI court were politically motivated, and that both the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party got together after his father’s death to end his political career.
Subsequently, roughly a year ago, Lakshminarayana obtained voluntary retirement from the CBI and toured the State “to acquaint himself with the problems of the people”.
There was speculation that he might float a new party, or join the BJP or the Jana Sena or the Telugu Desam. But he kept people guessing.
Earlier this month, there were reports in the Telugu media that he might join the TDP and YSR Congress leaders raised a hue and cry, saying that “the cat is out of the bag and the Lakshminarayana-TDP nexus is exposed.”
Mangalagiri seat
A row is also raging over the allotment of the Mangalagiri seat in Guntur district to the Left parties by Pawan Kalyan, as a part of electoral tie-up.
The Chief Minister’s son and State IT Minister Nara Lokesh is contesting from the constituency and the YSR Congress has alleged that there is a tacit tie-up between the TDP and Janasena, as part of which Pawan has fielded a weak candidate to ensure the victory of Lokesh.
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