Is it the end of the road for the famed Ponnapureddy political family in Kadapa’s Jammalamadugu? Is the family’s scion and heir staring at political oblivion? If sources serve us right, then former minister and several times MLA P Ramasubba Reddy is seriously considering quitting politics.
Ramasubba Reddy comes from the family of redoubtable hard-boiled politician Ponnapureddy Siva Reddy, better known as Bombula Siva Reddy. Siva Reddy won as an independent in 1983 and then joined the TDP. He had won in 1989 too, but was brutally murdered later. Since then, the Siva Reddy family and the Adinarayana Reddy family have become arch rivals and the politics of Jammalamadugu revolved around these two families. Ramasubba Reddy was the TDP’s strongman in the constituency. But his fall began in 2004. He lost continuously to Adinarayana Reddy in 2004, 2009 and 2014. After winning on YSRCP ticket, Adinarayana Reddy joined the TDP when Chandrababu was in power. This made Ramasubba Reddy very uncomfortable, but Chandrababu cooled him off. In a strange arrangement, Ramasubba was asked to fight for the Jammalamadugu assembly seat, while Adinarayana fought for the Lok Sabha seat. Both lost. Now, Adinarayana is in the YSRCP.
It is being said that YS Jagan has promised him an MLC seat with a rider that he would not be given an assembly seat in 2024. This effectively means that this MLC seat, if given, is the last term he can enjoy. After this he may have to walk into the sunset. As of now, sources close to Reddy say that he too is actively considering retirement from politics.