Hyderabad, January 12: For the first time after quitting the Congress, former Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday took the battle to Delhi and dared the Congress high command to take action against its MLAs loyal to him.
With about 24 MLAs and two MPs of the Congress by his side, he sat on his Jala Deeksha, a day-long fast, at the Jantar Mantar here in the national capital, ostensibly to force the Centre to undo the injustice meted out to the State in the allocation of Krishna waters. In reality, though, it was a show of strength. In fact, he said as much in his address, albeit indirectly.
It was because of his “generosity” that the Congress government in AP was surviving, he claimed. “Because I am a gentleman, your government is surviving. Had I told my MLAs to break away from the Congress, the government would have collapsed long ago,” he said and added condescendingly, “I did not tell them because I did not want to be the cause of the downfall of the government.” Rubbing it in further, the late YSR’s son claimed that in 2014 elections, “all these MLAs will contest on my party ticket.” He went on to say that the legislators were continuing in the Congress only at his behest. “By doing so, I am doing a great favour to the Congress,” Jagan said in English, apparently to the send the message to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. From his home district Kadapa, five legislators turned up for his protest. There were two MLAs from the Telugu Desam and an equal number from the Praja Rajyam. The two MPs, who were with him, were Sabbam Hari (Anakapalle) and Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy (Nellore). The MLAs included three former ministers – Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Balineni Srinivasa Reddy and Konda Surekha and actress-turned-legislator Jayasudha.
Jagan’s protest ended in the evening when the Delhi police refused to let him continue the show till morning. The former MP and his followers walked up to the nearby police station and courted arrest. The police formally arrested and released them within minutes.
Earlier, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari made light of Jagan’s statements, denying any threat to the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in AP.
–Agencies–