Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, May 23
It’s a deja vu moment for Yeduguri Sandinti Jaganmohan Reddy. In 2004, his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy had managed to push Telugu Desam Party’s N Chandrababu Naidu out of power. Today, he has repeated the feat.
But it has been a long and arduous journey for Jagan, who did not know what to do when his father and the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister suddenly died in a helicopter crash.
Considering his political journey, he has had a meteoric rise, waiting to take on from where his father left — CM of Andhra Pradesh.
Humiliated by the Congress, this 46-year-old leader started a new party to carry on the legacy of his father. For this, he struggled hard and did ‘padyatra’ for thousands of km connecting with the people. The people, in turn, came out and turned his political rallies into a tsunami of emotions.
On a campaign trail in Gujawaka, The Tribune saw that he did not just bank on the legacy of his late father, but had — over the decade — built up his own following.
As a hardcore businessman, based out of the then Bangalore, Jagan was not accepted by the Congress as an heir to his father’s political legacy. The party refused to grant him a ticket from Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh) in 2005.
The then Congress president asked him to wait till 2009 for the ticket, which he did and staged an impressive win from Kadapa parliamentary seat.
It was then that he had started nurturing thoughts of building an alternative to the Congress. Barely six months later, his father died, plunging the state into political chaos.
Before YSR’s last rites, his supporters wanted Jagan to be anointed Chief Minister much to the displeasure of other Congress leaders. This was seen as an act of rebellion and first, K Rosaiah and then Kiran Kumar Reddy were appointed to replace YSR.
But when his uncle Vivekananda Reddy was inducted into the state Cabinet, Jagan accused the Congress of dividing his family and quit the party along with his mother YS Vijayamma, who was earlier elected unopposed from the Pulivendula Assembly seat. It was now time to launch the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) that replaced the Congress in the truncated state of Andhra in 2014.
Political rivals raised fingers at his drastic rise in wealth during the term of his father as Chief Minister. Following the Congress and TDP demand, the Andhra Pradesh High Court ordered a CBI probe against him in 2011.
He always denied making money through the influence of his father and termed the cases as vendetta. However, the CBI arrested Jagan and sent him to jail on May 27, 2012. He got bail after 16 months in jail. Some 31 criminal cases are pending against him.
After that, he set a record of sorts travelling on foot for 14 months till January 2019 covering 3,640 km, meeting people and promising ‘Rajanna Rajyam’ like his father’s rule. He struck a chord with the people during his ‘padyatra’ and received tremendous response. He successfully turned this response into votes that not many could see till the result today. Party sources said he is expected to take oath as Chief Minister at Vijayawada before the end of this month.
Turbulent journey
- Jagan floated the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSCRP) in March 2011
- Over the alleged dramatic increase in Jagan’s wealth when his father was the CM, the CBI arrested Jagan and sent him to jail on May 27, 2012. After 16 months in jail, he was granted bail
- Then, Jagan started building the party and undertook ‘padyatras’ to know the people’s problems
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2Hydgce
via Today’s News Headlines
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