Hyderabada, January 20: Building up pressure on chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the Congress high command, Jagan loyalists claimed on Wednesday that at least 13 Congress MLAs loyal to their leader had conveyed to them that they could not make it to New Delhi to join Jagan in his one-day fast on Tuesday because of other pressing engagements.
By making this claim, the implication of the Jagan camp was that the Congerss MLAs with him were not only the 21 who took part in the fast in Delhi, but also these 13 legislators, thus taking the total number of Jagan loyalist MLAs to 34.
According to sources, Congress legislators Dwarampudi Chandrasekar Reddy (Kakinada) and Kapu Ramachandra Reddy (Rayadurg) personally telephoned Jagan and conveyed their explanation for not joining him in the fast. Other MLAs M Rajesh Kumar (Chintalapudi), Perni Nani (Machilipatnam), Jogi Ramesh (Pedana), Malladi Vishnu (Vijayawada), Labbi Venkata Swamy (Nandikotkuru), Shajahan Basha (Madanapalli), M Prasada Raju (Narsapuram), P Ramanjaneyulu (Bhimavaram), Raja Ashok Babu (Tuni) and R Varaprasad (Razole) also communicated their reasons for absence to various Jagan loyalists, the sources claimed.
–Agencies