Hyderabad, April 07: Apparently keen on dispelling the notion that he has a political agenda behind his ‘Odarpu’ tour of the State beginning April 9, Kadapa MP and late YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy reportedly explained the objective of his programme to Chief Minister K Rosaiah at the latter’s residence on Tuesday night.
The meeting lasted for one-and-ahalf hours.
The meeting assumed significance in the wake of growing hiatus between the two leaders after Rosaiah pipped him to the chief minister’s post after Rajasekhara Reddy’s death in a helicopter crash in September last year.
As soon as Jagan Mohan Reddy, accompanied by Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao arrived at Rosaiah’s residence at about 9 p.m., they were given a warm welcome by Rosaiah.
Later Jagan Mohan Reddy explained the purpose of his tour to him and said he was beginning the first phase on April 9 from Eluru.
According to sources, Rosaiah, a diplomat to the core, listened to him patiently, showing keen interest in the points that Jagan Mohan Reddy was making.
After discussing other issues including tomorrow’s maiden meeting of the Congress Coordination Committee (both of them are the members) being attended by Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, they had dinner together.
Jagan explained to the Chief Minister contents of the open letter he has written to the people in which he had said his tour as apolitical in nature and that he did not want any show of strength or pomp.
“I want to visit the families of those who committed suicide unable to digest the fact that my father is no more.
There is nothing more to it,’’ Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed out.
Sources said Jagan Mohan Reddy also made suggestions to Rosaiah on the proposed Cabinet expansion.
Though it is not clear what the proposals were, it is speculated that he may have pitched in for Konda Surekha, who quit Rosaiah’s Cabinet, saying she could not stay in a Government sans Rajasekhara Reddy.
Already his mother and Pulivendula MLA Vijayalakshmi’s name is doing the rounds as one of the possible contender. The sources said bonhomie and banter prevailed in the meeting all through and there were apparently no feelings of mistrust.
Of late, the distance between the two leaders has been growing and the suspicion that Jagan Mohan Reddy may have had his hand behind the political hardships Rosaiah had faced made the matters worse.
But, wise counsel seem to have prevailed at last on the supporters of Jagan that an attempt has to be made to mend fences with the Chief Minister particularly after both of them avoided each other at the memorial meeting of former minister Koneru Rangana Rao at Gudavalli near Vijayawada recently.
Though some dismissed it as a farfetched theory that both had intentionally avoided each other, others said they did not meet because they arrived at the venue at different times due to their pre-occupation with other issues.
Recently a few MLAs from Kadapa district tried to broker peace between the two and even raised the subject with the Chief Minister. Later, late Rajasekahra Reddy’s alter ego KVP Ramachandra Rao, took the initiatve for the Tuesday’s conclave.
It remains to be seen how long this new-found friendship would last.
–Agencies