Congress member of Parliament YS Jaganmohan Reddy today announced his decision to resign from the party and Lok Sabha alleging that the Congress 'humiliated' his family.
After waging a futile 14-month battle with the Congress leadership for the chief minister’s job in Andhra Pradesh, YS Jaganmohan Reddy, son of former chief minister YS Rajasekara Reddy (YSR), finally resigned from the party and quit his Lok Sabha seat on Monday. His move comes at a time when the Congress high command is working overtime to stabilise the party in the state by installing new chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Though the disgruntled leader is yet to disclose his future plans, his loyalists are gearing up to set up a new political outfit.
Sources close to his group told DNA that at least 15 to 20 sitting MLAs, including YSR’s widow Vijayamma, may resign as members of the legislative assembly.
“There are going to be major changes in the party structure once the new CM puts in place his cabinet of ministers on Wednesday. Once the list of the new ministers is out, there are going to be some resignations of MLAs in support of Jagan,” a source said.
In case the said number do resign, it would cause serious trouble for the Congress government. The party has 156 MLAs in a house of 294. Two of the legislators of the main opposition, TDP, are also likely to quit the party in support of Jagan.
In a five-page open letter addressed to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Jagan attributed his decision to the humiliation meted out to him in the party. He also accused the Congress leadership of trying to drive a “wedge” in his family by offering to make his uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy, a member of the state legislative council, a minister in the new government.
The Congress has dubbed Jagan’s decision as “most unfortunate and misguided”. Veerappa Moily, the party’s in charge for Andhra, said it would not hurt the party as “is very strong there,” he added.
The resignation comes a fortnight after the Sakshi television channel owned by Jagan launched an attack against Sonia Gandhi, prime minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress. The TV programme had angered the Congress leadership but no action was taken against him. Earlier, he had defied the party high command’s directives and gone ahead with the controversial ‘Odarpu Yatra’ in six districts.
— With agency inputs
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