It is learnt that YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was seriously trying to woo his paternal uncle Y S Vivekananda Reddy, who had split from the family and remained loyal to the Congress leadership.
According to the information, Vivekananda Reddy was also not happy with the way he was being treated by the Congress. Taking advantage of this situation, it is learnt that Jagan was wooing his uncle to join him, with a view to strengthen his party.
It may be mentioned here that Vivekananda Reddy has differed with Jagan and chose to remain in the Congress when the latter launched the hew party. He even contested against Vijayalakshmi, YSR’s widow, and was defeated in the Pulivendula by-election, caused by death of late YSR.
It is learnt that Jagan was thinking of fielding either his mother Vijayalakshmi or Vivekananda Reddy in the Rajya Sabha elections and split the Congress vote, by motivating the MLAs loyal to YSR. It is being said that Jagan has been making plans for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to be held in March, as the Speaker was still taking time to disqualify the 17 MLAs supporting him.
It is being said that Jagan was awaiting the result of Viveka’s current visit to New Delhi, where he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her political adviser Ahmed Patel and asked them to consider his candidature for the Rajya Sabha. If he doesn’t get Congress nomination, Vivekananda Reddy might take Jagan’s offer and the two might together upset the applecart of the Congress. If Viveka doesn’t agree to contest to Rajya Sabha with insufficient strength, Jagan may make Vijayamma to contest to Rajya Sabha and if she succeeds, then he would field Viveka from the Pulivendula Assembly constituency to be vacated by her.
Now, Jagan is moving his cards carefully to utilize the dissatisfaction of Vivekananda Reddy to his advantage. He wants to win his ‘Babai’ back and unite the family and strengthen himself and his family, say sources. (NSS)