Jagan team flaunts survey to strengthen his case

Jaganmohan Reddy’s supporters continued their campaign to install him as Andhra Pradesh chief minister, but the party is more inclined towards making him a minister of state. The Congress core committee met on Thursday evening to try and resolve the Andhra Pradesh imbroglio.

Senior members of the draft-Jaganmohan campaign went around distributing the findings of a survey by a private agency which shows that 78% of people in the state favour YSR Reddy’s son as his successor while only 13% favour acting CM K Rosaiah.

They met everybody who matters from Sonia Gandhi to the PM to Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmad Patel, Digvijay Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad. With the expiry of the mourning period, the Congress core committee met to take stock of the situation. It asked KVP Ramachandra Rao, who is spearheading the draft-Jaganmohan campaign, to be available for consultations. A section of the party believes that appointing Reddy at this stage would send the wrong message. What weighs against Reddy is his lack of experience. The party is inclined towards inducting Reddy as MoS at the Centre so that he can gain experience.

Reddy’s supporters argue that he may have contested elections only a few months ago, but he has been active in politics, managing his father and his uncle’s constituency. They distributed state government statistics to show that over 400 people had either died of cardiac arrest or committed suicide in the wake of YSR’s death. They say they will eventually accept whatever decision the high command takes.