YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy announced on the floor of the state assembly that he will not entertain any defection of MLAs from Telugu Desam Party, unlike his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu who had engineered defection of as many as 23 MLAs from YSRC.

He declared that if any TDP legislators want to join the YSRC, they should first resign from his assembly membership; otherwise, they would be disqualified from the assembly.

Because of Jagan’s open assertion, some of the TDP MLAs who were initially planning to quit the party to join YSRC dropped their plans.

However, the YSRC is now learnt to have decided to lure strong TDP leaders who have huge political influence with strong followers in their respective districts.

Apparently, this move is aimed at weakening the TDP, which still has very strong base of cadre in the districts. If the cadre disintegrates, the party automatically collapses.

As part of the strategy, YSRC is understood to have laid trap for Telugu Yuvatha state president Devineni Avinash, who recently lost the assembly elections from Gudivada against YSRC MLA and present civil supplies minister Kodali Nani.

According to sources, Devineni along with his followers across Krishna district, are going to join the YSRC very soon.

The defection of the TDP leader, who represents Kamma community in the district, will be a big setback to the party, as he can influence a large section of the community to switch over to the YSRC.

Similarly, former TDP legislator from Vijayawada (Central) Bonda Umamaheshwar Rao is also said to be contemplating joining the YSRC along with his followers. Bonda, who represents Kapu community, lost to YSRC’s Malladi Vishnu by a small margin in the recent assembly elections.

Apparently, Bonda has realised that he has no future in the TDP. Though there were reports that he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party, sources said the YSRC leadership has been bringing pressure on him to join the party.

The YSRC is said to be looking for other potential TDP leaders who can be trapped in other districts.