Hyderabad, June 03: A beleaguered Congress MP from Kadapa Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy received support from unexpected quarter when MIM president and Hyderabad MP Assaduddin Owaisi met him and extended solidarity.
The hour-long meeting at Mr. Reddy’s residence at Sagar Society on Wednesday came as some respite for the Congress MP who attracted the Congress high command’s ire for defying its diktat against going ahead with the ‘Odarpu yatra’, besides drawing flak from State Ministers and Telangana MPs. Compounding his woes was AICC general secretary M. Veerappa Moily’s statement that he was not given permission to resume the yatra.
MIM sources said Mr. Owaisi not only counselled the Congress MP against taking any hasty decisions, but also spoke to AICC general secretary Ahmed Patel.
He is believed to have told Mr. Patel that a systematic campaign has been launched against Mr. Jagan to ruin his political career.
Sources quoted him as telling the AICC leader that it was unfair to entertain a spate of complaints and also referred to the role of Congress MPs from Telangana, who were very vocal in obstructing the ‘Odarpu yatra’.
Mr. Owaisi advised the Congress MP to observe restraint in view of the political turmoil and desist from resuming his yatra. Recalling his close association with late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, he said that he did not want his son to suffer at the hands of his detractors.
Meanwhile, former Minister Konda Surekha and her husband Konda Muralidhar Rao, MLC, met the Congress MP when they reportedly explained the sequence of events on Mahbubabad that culminated in firing.
They urged him not to take any step that would hamper his political growth. Mines Minister Balineni Srinivasulu Reddy, Rayachoti MLA G. Srikant Reddy and others met the MP.
In a related development, Peddapalli MP G. Vivekanand called on Mr. Moily in New Delhi and briefed him the political situation. He said there was no purpose of the yatra in the region when it could have inflamed passions.
No outsiders were involved in stone pelting and most of them were students from Mahbubabad and nearby areas.
-Agencies