Hyderabad, April 29: Did YS Jagan Moahn Reddy walk into the Congress’ trap when he said he would not have any objection to having an alliance with the BJP provided it would give 10 per cent reservation to Muslims across the country?
According to observers, just a few days ahead of polling in the Kadapa district, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s statement was politically thoughtless as it gave an indication that he was, in principle, not against allying with the BJP.
Though his statement might not affect his fortunes in the by-election, what is worrying his camp is whether it will have an impact on the Muslim opinion of him and spoil his chances of a decent performance in the 2014 state general elections.
Though his followers say that since the 2014 elections are still far away and that they would make every effort to undo whatever damage Jagan’s statement may have caused, there is a nagging doubt in them that whether a seed of suspicion sown would be easy to remove.
“Our leader’s intention was that he cared more for Muslims. It probably did not occur to him that his statement could be interpreted against him,” a leader very close to Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
Recently, PCC President D Srinivas dangled the bait before Jagan Mohan Reddy making an observation that Jagan Mohan Reddy would have no option but to support the BJP-led NDA after the 2014 election because he was anti-Congress.
Ironically, it was the BJP which went to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rescue on Thursday. Its senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the BJP had no intention of having any truck with him and that it was against reservation on the basis of religion.
But an unsparing Congress went for Jagan Mohan Reddy’s jugular, saying that its worst fears that Jagan would cheat Muslims had come true with his statement on BJP.
–Agencies