Ongole MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, who was named in the Delhi excise policy case, has been named as one of the Lok Sabha candidates to contest on a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket. The announcement was made on Friday, March 29, a day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal gave statements before a Delhi court in connection with the case.
The TDP recently rejoined the BJP-led NDA, and is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in an alliance with BJP and Jana Sena Party.
Sreenivasulu Reddy, who was elected from the Ongole Lok Sabha seat on a YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) ticket in 2019, has been fielded from the same constituency. He quit the ruling YSRCP and joined the TDP last month after he was denied a ticket for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Sreenivasulu and his son Raghava Magunta Reddy were named in the Delhi excise policy case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The ED alleged that the father-son duo, who own Balaji Distilleries, are part of the ‘South Group’, whose members allegedly received undue benefits under the Delhi excise policy in exchange for kickbacks paid to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The MP’s son had turned approver and based on his and other approvers’ statements, the ED is reported to have built its case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha; both of whom have been arrested.
Raghava, who was arrested in February 2023 on money laundering charges, was allowed to turn an approver and granted pardon in October 2023. He got anticipatory bail in a related CBI case last month.
Kejriwal claimed in the Delhi Rouse Avenue court on Friday that it was after Raghava’s arrest that his father changed his previous statement to the ED.
Srinivasulu Reddy was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha from Ongole on a Congress ticket in 1998, 2004, and 2009. He had joined the TDP after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and contested unsuccessfully from the same seat on a TDP ticket in 2014. He later switched loyalties to the YSRCP.
Another accused in the case, Aurobindo Pharma Director Sarath Chandra Reddy, also turned approver in the case. Companies associated with Sarath Chandra Reddy were found to have donated at least Rs 55 crore to the BJP after his arrest in the case, of which Rs 5 crore was donated just five days after his arrest.