It is now emerging that former PCC chief D Srinivas’ joining of the Congress Party has been postponed. He was expected to join the Congress on Friday in the presence of Sonia Gandhi. On Thursday, he met Sonia Gandhi and discussed the modalities of his joining the party. The meeting went on for some 40 minutes and Sonia Gandhi even invited seniors like Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and others to be present at the time of DS’s joining.

However, the programme has been deferred. At the last moment, there was a communication from Telangana Congress affairs incharge Manickam Tagore to DS that the joining was deferred and that another date would be intimated soon. This has set off several speculations about why the programme was postponed?

Sources say that the Congress high command felt that DS still has six more months of tenure as Rajya Sabha MP. He represents the TRS in the Rajya Sabha. If he joins the Congress at this juncture, it could lead to his disqualification under the provisions of the anti-defection act. So, the Congress decided that he would be admitted only after Sankranthi so that it does not attract the provisions of the Act.

But some other sources say that several Congress leaders from Nizamabad district have strongly opposed the entry of D Srinivas They said that DS’s son Aravind Dharmapuri is a BJP MP and is known to be a very strong Congress baiter. Recently he had made several disparaging remarks on Sonia Gandhi. The anti-DS group is said to have pointed this out and wanted the Congress High Command to take into consideration this factor too while admitting DS. Sources say the high command felt that it should wait for some more time before admitting DS.