Interim incumbent chief minister K Rosaiah has ruled out the possibility of any division in the Andhra Congress and said the party stands firmly behind Sonia Gandhi.
Supporters of YS Jaganmohan Reddy — son of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a chopper crash on Wednesday — today sought to step up the campaign to make him the next CM of the state, even as the interim incumbent
K Rosaiah ruled out the possibility of any division in the Andhra Congress.
A day after Rajasekhara Reddy was buried in his home district, Union law minister and Congress party in-charge for the state, M Veerappa Moily, said the party was not
going to focus on the succession issue.
In significant remarks, Rosaiah said there was unity in the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, and the party stood solidly behind Sonia Gandhi, and that was the reason "we were able to get 33 Parliament members elected from this state".
The Congress high command's reluctance to get into the succession issue did not not deter MLAs, slowly trickling into the city after YSR's burial in Idupulapaya, in Kadapa, yesterday evening.
MLAs Prasad Raju of Narasapur in West Godavari district, N Seshu Reddy of Anakapalle and Tota Narasimha of Jagampet, both from East Godavari district, reached the legislature party office and told reporters that Jaganmohan was the "right choice" for the chief minister's post.
Jaganmohan, 37, a first-time MP, would easily step into his father's shoes and complete his unfinished work, the MLAs said. Several of the 154 Congress MLAs in Andhra are first-timers, many die-hard supporters of the late YSR.
Congress chief whip Mallu Batti Vikramarka, a YSR loyalist, is the main mover behind the campaign to make Jaganmohan the chief minister. However, the move is not without opposition, and some senior leaders are said to be in a mood to caution the party high
command against the "haste" with which Vikramarka is conducting the campaign.
Meanwhile, Rosaiah said he was sure there would not be any groups in the Congress. "I am sure there won't be any division in the party. There won't be any infighting. But
after all, we are human beings. We will be discussing various things among us. But all of us, I am sure, will go by the advice given by the Congress high command."
The interim chief minister has also written to governor ND Tiwari, seeking continuation of the ministers in the YSR Cabinet, even as he sought a legal opinion on whether the
ministers were required to take the oath of office afresh.
Rosaiah, 77, a veteran who has been minister in successive Congress governments since the 1970s, has said he has no amibitions would go by the Congress high command's
decision.
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