`Financial strikes’ against two influential ministers of Chandrababu Naidu cabinet have been raising speculations over political ramifications. Almost simultaneously, while Income Tax officials conducted raids into the premises of Municipal Administration Minister Dr P Narayana’s close associate Dr Gunasekhar Yadav at Tirupati, Indian Bank officials attached properties of Human Resources Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao in and around Visakhapatnam, in a default case.
Though these two incidents are seen as nothing to do with politics and related to their individual financial transactions, many suspecting reflection on fall out of their political clout in the ruling party.
Dr Gunasekhar, a former member of Medical Council of India, is a family friend of the minister Dr Narayana and also alleged as his `Benami’. Incidentally, IT officials also screening bank transactions of Narayana Educational Institutions Bengaluru CEO. These institutions are owned by Minister’s family.
Minister Ganta’s properties were attached by the bank officials as he was the guarantor for a loan of Rs 141 crore taken by Pratyusha Resources & Infra Ltd. Though he was promoter of this company and acting as its director, he was resigned in 2012 while joining Kiran Kumar Reddy’s cabinet.
Incidentally, the two ministers are `in-laws’ (Viyyankulu). Last year they turned as relatives with the wed-lock between their children and hails from numerically influential Kapu community. This community leaders are now in face-off with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu over the issue of reservation.
A section of TDP leadership is said to be cultivating discontent with these two ministers after their emergence as rallying point for Kapu MLAs within the party and also they were remaining silent towards Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham’s continuous tirade against Chandrababu Naidu. Financially also, these two are turning strong.
As a confident of Chandrababu Naidu, Narayana had played a key role in mobilising land for Amaravati capital and it was alleged that he had also secured large portion of lands in benami names around this place. A senior TDP leader said that their growing clout causing worry to the newly emerging power centre within the party and also fear that they be more possessive by 2019 polls.
