Will the arrest of Jagan Mohan Reddy and the prospect of an indefinite jail term let the Congress heave a sigh of relief as its much touted stability is certain? A Congress MP and die-hard follower of Jagan was sure of the stability of the government with Jagan’s arrest as he was the only one who would be able to engineer defections after the bypoll results on June 15.
“It is an open secret that if Jagan is outside by June 15, the collapse of the Congress government would have been possible, but as long as he is in jail it will be difficult,” the MP said.
The sympathy factor — Vijayalakshmi, the mother, taking over from the son and working his arduous campaign trail to galvanise support — is a foregone conclusion though this alone will not destabilise the government.
If the Congress loses all the seats, the party High Command can change the leadership. Sources close to Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy ruled out chances of a change of guard as the High Command had already been briefed about the likely outcome of the bypolls.
“It is all anticipated, everything is going in favour of the government. The YSR Congress cannot sustain the tempo till the 2014 elections, Jagan’s misdeeds will be exposed and people will start realising that there is no threat to us,” the sources added. In fact, TD chief Chandrababu Naidu admitted that it was a temporary phase and people would come to know all the facts about Jagan soon. His arrest will also apply the brakes on poaching of MLAs from Congress and the TD.