Jagan, Congress differ on yatra

NEW DELHI: Jaganmohan Reddy's condolence yatra continued to trouble Congress on Tuesday after the Kadapa MP said the party leadership had given him a go-ahead with the caveat that he avoid the troubled Telangana.

Reddy met Veerappa Moily, AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, after which he said that the party had "blessed" him. He told TOI, "I will postpone my yatra in Telangana for two months to prove that it has nothing to do with the coming byelections there, but is a personal gesture to console families of those who committed suicide after my father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's death."

Reddy's claim, however, ran into fresh counters from the AICC that he suspend the yatra in its entirety for now. Moily said he had not given any "go-ahead" during his interaction with Reddy. The law minister spoke to Reddy again after he saw his statements on television.

The ticklish issue has laid bare the post-YSR Congress predicament in Andhra Pradesh where it has to balance the political aspirations of Reddy and his detractors in the party. A clear case is Reddy's bid to carry on with the yatra outside Telangana. While AICC sources in a day-long flipflop said Reddy had been asked to give up his yatra, it is a fact that the party had not objected to the journey till it ran into trouble in Warangal.

After Reddy landed in the Capital to lobby the leadership when the state government forced him out of the yatra, the party has only come out as undecided on an action plan for the crisis ridden state unit. Reddy was supposed to have come to clarify his position but has actually stuck to his guns.

The young MP's description of his yatra as "a homage of a son to a father" has put the party in a cleft. While its opposition to the yatra carries the risk of being seen as targetting its own "great leader", a green signal is a red rag to a vocal party section from Telangana which sees it as Reddy's couched attempt to destabilize chief minister Rosaiah. Reddy has accused the TRS for orchestrating violence in Warangal but has also blamed the Rosaiah government for inaction against those responsible for it.

The Congress dilemma over the issue is heightened by the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections and, sources said, clarity is likely to emerge after June 14.

Sources close to Reddy said they preferred that he suspend the yatra for now as it was giving his detractors a chance to portray him as brash and irresponsible.