Jagan loyalists demand CM to seek fresh mandate

Stating that the people of the state had given a mandate to Former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy to rule, former ministers Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose and Balineni Srinivas, on Wednesday challenged Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to resign and seek a fresh mandate.

The loyalists of Kadapa leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy told media persons at Media Point on Assembly premises, that the Congress should not use the name of the Former Chief Minister when it goes before the people but instead use the photo of all India party president Sonia Gandhi.

They said that if Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy was so confident about the role played by Ms Sonia Gandhi in the return to power of the Congress party, then the people would surely vote for the party.

The former ministers said that Mr Jaganmohan Reddy is not pulling down the government because he had respect for the people’s mandate which had given it time till 2014, but that does not mean that the government will not collapse because of its internal differences.

They said that these internal differences was leading to Congress Legislators swarming to Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s camp, to the extent that Legislators from other parties were becoming influenced and were too joining the former MP.

This, the former ministers said, was the reason behind the Chief Minister’s recent outburst where he laid serious but unsubstantiated charges against the Kadapa leader.

The Chief Minister was resorting to leveling baseless allegations and making charges unable to digest the growing popularity of Mr Jaganmohan Reddy, Mr Srinivas said.

The unsubstantiated charge that Mr Jaganmohan Reddy was involved in a murder case was grossly unethical, especially in the light of the CBI giving him a clean chit, the former minister said.

In the wake speculation that the government has fallen into minority, they dared the Congress party to introduce no confidence motion in the Assembly to prove its majority. This has become particularly necessary when the government has sought the support of the Praja Rajyam Party despite having 155 Congress MLAs in the House.

The former ministers also rubbished rumours of Mr Jaganmohan Reddy rejoining the Congress party. They said that even if Congress president Sonia Gandhi invites the Kadapa leader, he would not go back to the party he had resigned from.

They said that Jaganmohan Reddy would announce his new party most probably by mid-February. “The announcement of new party is certain and there is no doubt about it,” they asserted.

They challenged the MLAs, who were elected by using YSR’s names, schemes and photo, to resign and seek reelection without using the Former Chief Minister’s name.

Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy, G Babu Rao and MLC Jupudi Prabhakara Rao were also present.