CONGRESS high command is bracing up to face the twin challeges in Andhra Pradesh the Telangana agitation(post Dec) and checkmating Jagan Mohan Reddy,the rebel Congress leader.
There was never a dull moment for those watching the television in Andhra Pradesh on 24-11-2010. The counting of the Bihar polls started in the morning with the BJP-JD alliance going on rampage winning more than 206 of the 243 seats and the Congress ending up with a single digit throughout the day despite the aggressive campaigning by young princeling Rahul Gandhi . A Congress Legislature party meet was convened in the evening and till noon, none knows what the agenda was . Political speculation was that it was convened to take disciplinary action against the rebel Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The Congress party choose to check the drift of the party in AP by changing the guard and deputed its bigwigs Pranab Mukherjee, Verrappa Moily and Ghulam Nabi Azad for the purpose. A day earlier Rosiah visited New Delhi and believed to have poured his heart out to the Madam or the Party supremo Sonia Gandhi for not being given freedom to run the party and the government and even felt alienated from the ministers of his own Cabinet who are divided in the lines of Andhra and Telangana. So helpless was Rosiah that he could neither discuss the matters with his ministers or act without the concurrence of Delhi in the matters of State and the party.
His ministers choose to look the other way even when attacked and he had to beg them to defend him from his own party man Jaganmohan Reddy MP who is also the son of the late YS Rajashekar Reddy. The Congress at least this time has taken the rebellion of Jaganmohan Reddy a bit seriously. A television channel Sakshi owned by him recently aired a story critical of Congress and its chief Sonia Gandhi as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too. The special story on November 19th was telecasted to mark the 125th anniversary celebrations of Congress. It had said the grand old party is on a “rapid degeneration” across the country and even Sonia herself is facing rough weather in her constituency, Rae Bareilly.
This story put up by Sakshi compelled many a Congressmen to come out and display their loyalty to the party by attacking its offices all over the State and re-garlanding the statues of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi(an act to affirm his /her loyalty to the supremo) . The host of Congress bigwigs, including former Chief Minister K Rosiah, former Chief Minister N Janardhana Reddy, several State ministers and PCC chief D Srinivas, strongly condemned the so-called “blasphemous story.” But to many in the journalistic perspective the programme was apt and hit a bull’s eye when a voice accused Sonia Gandhi of wielding power without holding any position and demanded a dynamic Chief Minister who could win over the masses and recounted the scams that are haunting the UPA II . The television channel freely aired the views of Opposition leader Venkaih Naidu, Sushma Swaraj and others in berating the Manmohan Singh government.
There were other two contenders for the CM’s post, Union Minister Jaipal Reddy and State information Minister Mrs Geeta Reddy. Rosiah exit was too sudden and three factors weighed heavily to choose a new successor.The demand for the State hood of Telangana ,open defiance of Jaganmohan and the caste factor.
Congress could not have selected some one from Coastal Andhra as Rosaih hails from that region and would further precipitate matters. Party leadership considers that it would be too difficult to run the show in the event of Justice Shri Krishna Commission submitting its report and Centre decides against carving out new State for Telangana. A pro-Telangana leader would be too embarassing. Having experimented with a non-Reddy like Rosiah its now imperative to pick up someone from the powerful Reddy community itself to take on the rebellion from Jagan who is from the Reddy community.
Kiran Kumar Reddy,aged 50 is the 16th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and was sworn in by Governor E S L Narsimhan on November 26 at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad.
Political observers say it shall be uphill task for the new incumbent to revive the party . He now has three major tasks on hand, battling the Telangana stir post on submission of the Shri Krishna report, minimise the Jagan impact and of course revive the tottering State economy which took hit with tax collections remaining poor through out due to various agitations. Kiran Kumar Reddy was never a minister and he is the Chief Minister now. He exuded confidence that he would take the support of all leaders in the all round prosperity of the State and vowed to fulfill the last political wish of late YSR Reddy which is to send 41 MPs to Lok Sabha and help make Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister of India in 2014. The task seem to be easier said than done for the simple reason that the rebel camp of Jagan simply waits for high command to initiate action to claim victimhood such that they can go on their own and start some political initiative to reap the harvest of Late YS Rajashekar Reddy’s good-will or the legacy.
