With the Congress high command not showing any inclination of softening its stand on Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, it seems that an all-out war is on the cards as sources say that the late YSR’s son is now planning to start his own political party.
The Congress high command was reportedly annoyed with the young MP for releasing a letter giving details of the conversation between his family and party president Sonia Gandhi when they met in Delhi. The fact that he insisted on continuing with the Odarpu yatra despite being told not to has also irked the high command.
The Congress high command has now instructed the state leadership, particularly chief minister K. Rosaiah, to go on an offensive and ensure that the Congress is not affected if Mr Reddy forms his own party.
“He wants to gain some sympathy from the public showing that he is being served a show-cause notice and later a suspension or expulsion notice from the party. We don’t do that, let him do whatever he wants, but you (state leadership) ensure that he doesn’t get support from the party and legislators.” This was the message to the state leadership from the high command.
When members of the Congress high command contacted state leaders and enquired about the possibility of party MLAs joining the new outfit of Jagan, they said that he might not even manage 10 in spite of he reportedly offering Rs 10 crore to each MLA to switchover to his side.
Sources say that Mr Rosaiah has contacted ministers and MLAs and warned them of serious consequences if they attended the Odarpu yatra.
Meanwhile, Mr Rosaiah has apparently rebuffed a recent proposal from the camp of Mr Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy who wants him to step down as chief minister after a convenient period of time in his favour. The “truce” proposal was brought to Mr Rosaiah by a key political figure of the Jagan camp and the gist of the proposal was that Jagan would extend all possible support to Mr Rosaiah with his group of MLAs and with the popular Telugu daily Sakshi and the news channel for the next six to eight months as long as the former abdicated in his favour after that.
He apparently patiently heard the proposal before turning it down stating that he was not the one to decide whether he would continue as chief minister.