The MLA also said she feared for her life and that’s the reason she didn’t visit Andhra Pradesh and her segment for the last two days.
Published Mar 26, 2023 | 7:44 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 26, 2023 | 7:45 PM
Tadikonda MLA Vundavalli Srivdevi. (Supplied)
Tadikonda MLA Vundavalli Sridevi, who was recently suspended by the YSRCP, said on Sunday, 26 March, that she was ready to join the stir launched by pro-Amaravati farmers.
The MLA also said that she would visit the protest tent of the pro-Amaravati farmers and take up the slogan “Build Amaravati and save Andhra Pradesh”.
Amaravati was initially chosen to be the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. which lost Hyderabad to Telangana in 2014.
The core capital area of Amaravati comes under the Tadikonda Assembly segment represented by Sridevi as MLA.
Meanwhile, the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh now seems keen on the three-capital formula, with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy throwing his weight behind the idea.
“All these years I could not join the women members of the Amaravati JAC (joint action committee) fighting for the cause. Now I’m an independent MLA, and I’m ready to join them,” Sridevi told reporters in Hyderabad on Sunday.
“I will go and sit under a protest camp tent and raise the slogan of ‘Build Amaravati, save Andhra Pradesh’,” she said.
“During the 2019 election campaign, wherever I went to my constituency, everyone asked me if YSRCP would come to power and the capital would be shifted away from Amaravati. I used to convince them that it would not happen, saying Jagan anna himself built a house in the capital region,” she recalled.
“But everything changed after the polls. I had to endure a lot of criticism,” said the lawmaker.
Sridevi was one among the four MLAs who were suspended by YSRCP following allegations that they had indulged in cross-voting in favour of the TDP candidate in the just-concluded MLC elections under the MLAs quota.
She questioned the rationale behind the allegations that she had cross-voted.
“How could the party come to the conclusion that I cross-voted when it was a secret ballot? There are two more dissident MLAs among those allotted to one of the MLC candidates of YSRCP,” she said.
Sridevi added that certain leaders in the party wanted to get rid of her for a long time since she had turned a into a hurdle for the large-scale corruption going on in and around the Amaravati capital region.
She said illegal sand quarrying was going on in Uddandarayunipalem, one of the 29 capital villages, and that the Jagan Anna colonies were a big scam.
She also deplored the attack on her office in her Assembly constituency.
The MLA also said she feared for her life and that’s the reason she didn’t visit Andhra Pradesh and her segment for the last two days.
“I’m scared to visit Andhra. I fear for my life. If anything happens to me, YSRCP leader Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy should be held responsible. I’m also going to write to the national SC commission about the threat to my life,” said Sridevi.
She also condemned the allegations that she had taken money to cross-vote.
“I and my husband are qualified doctors. We run a couple of hospitals and have good practice. I don’t need any such money. Only with a service motto did I enter politics. We believed that we could do more for the public by being in politics,” said Sridevi.
The suspended MLA said she was branded as a rabid dog and finally suspended from the party as part of a scheme to get rid of her since she had turned into a hurdle for YSRCP leaders looking to make illegal money.
Sridevi said that her mind had gone blank with the shot by Jagan, and she would give him a return gift in the coming days.
Elsewhere, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, another YSRCP rebel MLA who was suspended along with Sridevi, urged the party leadership to furnish proof that he had cross-voted.
Reddy added that he would announce his future course of action after holding discussions with his aides and followers.
