Y S Vivekananda Reddy, younger brother of late Dr.Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who left the warmth of his family by detaching himself with Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and remaining in the Congress party, seems to have lost both.
Though he has expressed his loyalty towards the Congress, the party doesn’t treat him as an important leader as he could not impact the victory of neither Jagan nor his mother Y S Vijayamma in the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly elections, with thunderous margins.
From the beginning, Viveka lived only in the shadows of his illustrious brother and was known to be a dynamic leader. Still, Congress then played him against Jagan and Vijayamma only to find that Viveka was not a big force to reckon with.
Though minister D L Ravindra Reddy was asked to contest against Jagan in the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat, he did not resign his cabinet post. Even after his stunning defeat at the hands of the YSR scion, he continued as minister. However, sticking to principles, Viveka has resigned as
Agriculture minister. But after the defeat, no one in the Congress bothered to ask him to rejoin the cabinet.
Viveka has recently started lobbying for Rajya Sabha seat. He has met the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other top leaders in New Delhi. He has also been in touch with the Chief Minister and the PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana. However, reports suggest that he would not get nomination to the upper house of Parliament. It is being said that his attempts to rejoin his family also had not succeeded. Though Jagan was little sympathetic towards his uncle, Vijayamma is said to be opposing taking Viveka back into the family fold, as he had not stood by the family when it was in deep trouble.
With this attitude of the family members, Viveka has reportedly decided to stay back in the Congress and get some position or the other. However, there is not a single leader in the Congress who was willing to propose his name for Rajya Sabha. Though Viveka has the feeling that he has sacrificed his own family relations for the sake of Congress, the same feeling was not found among the Congress leaders. (NSS)