The Hindu : Front Page : Central leadership sore over ‘Jagan only’ chorus

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Central leadership sore over ‘Jagan only’ chorus

Anita Joshua

“Lobbying, comparisons with Rajiv and open threats tasteless”

NEW DELHI: Efforts by “loyalists of YSR” to project his son and Kadapa MP, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, as the “only suitable candidate” to head Andhra Pradesh “in the present circumstances” have apparently not gone down well with the Congress central leadership.

For the record, the Congress refused to comment on the developments. “Let the mourning period [for Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy] be over. We have a Chief Minister in place in K. Rosaiah,” a senior party leader said.

Having been quick in asking Mr. Rosaiah to take charge, the Congress hoped to keep the inevitable posturing and lobbying for the Chief Minister’s post to the minimum for the time being. Though the leadership expected the sudden vacuum at the top in Andhra Pradesh to reopen old battlelines in the State unit, the speed and intensity with which Rajasekhara Reddy’s supporters have begun pitching for his son is being frowned upon by the All-India Congress Committee (AICC).

“They could have waited at least till his funeral was over. This kind of lobbying, comparisons with Rajiv Gandhi after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, and open threats are tasteless. Undoubtedly, YSR was a very dynamic Chief Minister, but he was first and foremost a Congressman, and it was the party that gave him the launch pad to emerge,” said a Congress Working Committee member.

Conscious of the high-strung atmosphere in the State, the party may wait and watch for a while before moving in to change the existing order. As it is, there is a general view that Mr. Rosaiah — “a Pranab Mukherjee-like figure” in Andhra Pradesh, having been a member of several Congress Cabinets — represents the continuity of the ‘YSR era.’ And, given his age — 76 — the new Chief Minister poses no threat to anyone in the State unit.

Borrowing the rationale adduced by the legislators and parliamentarians lobbying for Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy that only he could honour the commitments made by Rajasekhara Reddy, Congress leaders pointed out that Mr. Rosaiah had a key role in scripting the YSR legacy, thereby symbolising continuity in change.

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