Hyderabad, June 02: Kadapa MP Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday claimed the Congress high command had given him the go- ahead to resume his controversial Odarpu yatra ( consolation tour) in parts of Andhra Pradesh, barring Telangana.
He told the media after a 20- minute meeting with AICC in- charge of the state Veerappa Moily in New Delhi on Tuesday that he would resume the tour from Srikakulam in north coastal Andhra from June 8. He said he had clarified all doubts about his tour.
“ Moily told me to go ahead with my tour and continue whatever I am doing,” he said. He said he would resume his tour in the Telangana districts after the forthcoming byelections to 12 assembly seats in the region.
Congress sources, however, denied that the high command had given Jagan approval to resume his tour. Party president Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel is understood to have told Moily to issue a clarification.
Party sources in the state said YSR’s family friend KVP Ramachandra Rao and Moily, a known well- wisher of the YSR family, had lobbied with Sonia for the approval. They pointed out that Jagan had said the tour would be apolitical.
Meanwhile, Andhra chief minister K. Rosaiah refused to comment on Jagan’s outburst against him, holding his government responsible for the violence at Mahbubabad in Warangal district on May 28. But Congress MPs from Telangana who met Rosaiah at his residence on Tuesday, condemned Jagan’s comments.
“ There was no government failure in handling Jagan’s tour,” information minister J. Geetha Reddy said.
Health minister D. Nagender, a known Jagan loyalist, said it was irresponsible to say that Rosaiah was behind the stone- pelting incident.
—Agencies