Hyderabad, January 02: In a surprising development, YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday announced that his party would not contest in the Telangana region in the forthcoming by-elections in the state.
In a statement in the evening, Jagan said his party would acknowledge the sentiments of the people of Telangana.
“We don’t want to contest against those candidates who had resigned from their seats for a strong cause. We will respect their sentiments,” he said.
He announced that his party would contest in 18 assembly constituencies, including those of Nallapureddy Prasanna Kumar Reddy who had resigned from the Telugu Desam Party and Shobha Nagi Reddy, who had quit the Praja Rajyam Party. He also declared that his party would not field its candidate for Mahbubnagar assembly seat which has fallen vacant due to the death of sitting MLA Rajeshwara Reddy.
“Even if his wife contests from any other political party, we will not field our candidate as a matter of principle,” he said.
Surprisingly, the YSR Congress party will contest Parkal assembly seat, where sitting MLA Konda Surekha is all set to be disqualified, though the seat is in the Telangana region. While Surekha said she had voted against the government during the no-confidence motion for the sake of Telangana, Jagan’s announcement indicated that she had indeed followed his direction during the voting. So, she does not fall into the Telangana category!
——Agencies