Jaganmohan urged his supporters to go by the decision of the party leadership after senior Congress leaders told him that the campaign was doing his prospects more harm than good.
YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jaganmohan on Sunday tried to dissociate himself from the campaign to install him as the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, with the Congress high command making it clear that the party was not going to be forced into taking a decision.
Jaganmohan urged his supporters to go by the decision of the party leadership after senior Congress leaders told him that the campaign was doing his prospects more harm than good.
The persuasion seemed to have worked, given that all 34 ministers in the YS Rajasekhara Reddy cabinet took the oath of office again on Sunday. Earlier, at least five of the ministers had announced that they would not take the oath of office again until the party high command named Jaganmohan as the new chief minister.
Irked by the pressure tactics being used by YSR loyalists, the powers-that-be had dispatched AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh to ensure that the swearing-in passes off without complications.
The decision to name YSR’s successor will be taken after the official mourning period ends, giving the party time till Wednesday to set its house in order. The Congress’s back-channel managers have been working overtime to find an amicable way out of the mess. Ahmad Patel, political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, was on the job all night. Besides Digvijay Singh, law minister Veerappa Moily and parliamentary affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad also touched base with their contacts and some members who were close to YSR.
Singh first met state Congress chief D Srinivas and interim chief minister K Rosaiah, besides YSR’s childhood friend and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao.
It was Rao who informed disgruntled ministers that there was no option but to take the oath now and wait for a final word from the high command, sources said.
But many Jaganmohan supporters believe that he may still make it to the top post. In fact, sources said, Rosaiah found himself isolated in an informal cabinet meeting held
on Sunday.
“Even Rosaiah is supporting Jagan’s candidature. But one has to wait for the Congress Legislature Party meeting,” said a senior state Congress leader.
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