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Updated: Feb 19, 2019 11:21 IST

Politics in Andhra Pradesh took a curious twist ahead of the Lok Sabha election as Narne Srinivas, a close relative of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, met YSRC president YS Jaganmohan Reddy at his Lotus Pond Residence in Hyderabad on Monday.

Sources in the Yuvajana Sramika Rytu Congress party said it was the fifth time that Srinivas met Jagan Reddy in the last six months. Jagan Reddy is Naidu’s bitter rival and a strong contender for the chief minister’s post.

Srinivas, the father-in-law of actor and grandson of matinee idol NT Rama Rao Jr NTR, evaded a direct reply from the media on whether he would be joining Jagan’s party. Rama Rao was the founder of the TDP.

He is reportedly aspiring for a YSRC ticket from either Guntur Lok Sabha seat or Chilakaluripet assembly segment in Guntur district in the general elections to be held this year. Sources in the TDP said Srinivas is a strong contender for a ticket for Chilakaluripet assembly segment since 2004. But Naidu, it is said, did not entertain his requests to avoid criticism of supporting dynastic politics.

Jr NTR is married to Srinivas’ daughter Lakshmi Pranathi, who is the granddaughter of Naidu’s sister. The daughter of the chief minister’s sister is married to Srinivas. And, Naidu is NTR’s younger son-in-law. Srinivas founded a regional TV channel Studio N, which was reportedly taken over by Naidu’s son and IT minister Nara Lokesh.

Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, the elder son-in-law of NTR, also met Jagan Reddy on January 27 wishing to join the YSRC and eying a ticket for his NRI son Hithesh.

TDP spokesperson Dokka Manikya Varaprasad said Srinivas and Daggubati met Jagan Reddy just for seats.

Srinivas’ meeting came right after Lok Sabha member P Ravindranath resigned from the Telugu Desam Party and joined the YSRC in the presence of Jagan Reddy.

Jr NTR, who took an active part in the 2009 election campaign for the TDP, was allegedly sidelined in the legacy politics which shifted from the NTR family to Naidu after the chief minister took over the party reins from NTR in 1995.

The actor’s father and NTR’s elder son Harikrishna, who was recently killed in a road accident, also remained away from party activities after serving the TDP as a politburo member.