Hyderabad, September 17: The clamour for Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has claimed its first casualty the fortnightly meeting the Andhra Pradesh cabinet had never missed in the last six years.
Sensing the mood among ministers and legislators, chief minister K. Rosaiah has not called the meeting which would otherwise have been held tomorrow had the man he succeeded, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, not died in an air crash earlier this month.
Sources said an upset Rosaiah decided not to call the meeting after nearly all his cabinet colleagues rushed to public affairs adviser K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao’s house soon after his return from Delhi yesterday for the latest update on the leadership tussle.
Even Ramachandra Rao, who was loyal to YSR, called on the late chief minister’s son Jagan to brief him. It was Rosaiah who had to call up Ramachandra Rao to know what the high command had told him, but not before 15 to 20 ministers had confabulated with the adviser for three hours.
“Why is the high command refusing to recognise the popularity of Jagan and terming it a pressure tactic?” a senior minister is said to have asked.
Another minister said the “high command should recognise that without YSR and Jagan, there is no Congress in Andhra Pradesh”.
Jagan loyalists, including MLAs, MPs and over 70 per cent of Rosaiah’s cabinet, have been urging Ramachandra Rao and Jagan to launch a yatra across the state to console families of those who committed suicide or died of heart attack after YSR’s death.
Across the state, condolence meetings and unveiling of YSR statues have turned into impromptu forums to proclaim Jagan as the only leader capable of taking ahead the late leader’s welfare and development initiatives.
Thousands, with garlands and bouquets, have been thronging the camp office of the former chief minister since his family returned to Hyderabad from their native Pulivendula.
Jagan has been receiving the visitors in the central hall of the spacious bungalow, and most leave with the impression that the 36-year-old is the chief minister-in-waiting.
Veterans like Rajya Sabha MP V. Hanumantha Rao have, however, warned against raising the banner of revolt against the high command. “Don’t forget what happened to Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, K. Vijayabhaskar Reddy and M. Channa Reddy,” he said.
Brahmananda Reddy was asked to resign though he had the support of 220 members in a House of 295. Vijayabhaskar Reddy was sidelined for over seven years and the party Channa Reddy floated was blanked in the 1985 general election.
-Agencies