52 PARLIAMENTARIAN l juLy 2019T
he feisty leader had his political
baptism on the rocky path of hurdles,
obstructions and failures before he
got what he wanted to be
: Chief Minister
It was sweet victory and sweeter revenge for Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
When his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy died
tragically in a helicopter crash in September 2009
after an impressive victory for a second time earlier
in that year, Jaganmohan Reddy demanded the
Congress party that he should be made the chief
minister. Then Congress president Sonia Gandhi
and others in the party’s high command refused.
They offered him a cabinet berth at best.
But Jaganmohan Reddy was not willing to accept
anything less than the post of the chief minister. In
2011, he formed the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu
Congress Party (YSRCP), the first three letters
coinciding with that of his father’s name. In the 2014
election he lost out to N Chandrababu Naidu’s
Telugu Desam Party rather narrowly and became
the leader of opposition in the new state of Andhra
Pradesh after the bifurcation of the old state of
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was created.
In May 2019, he scored a total victory both in the
assembly where his party had won 150 of the 175
seats and 23 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats.
He knows that his party’s overwhelming victory
in the state assembly election has been tempered by
the overwhelming victory of Narendra Modi-led
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) victory in the Lok Sabha election. And he admits
his disappointment with the turn of event.who’s god?
In an interview with BBC Telugu television programme, he said that he had
prayed to God that he should win in the state assembly elections and that the
BJP should not get an absolute majority so that the national party would have
had to depend on regional parties like his to form the government at the
Centre and he would have been in a position to exert pressure to get things
for his state. And he said that God had heard his prayers in the state and he
heard the prayers of the BJP at the national level.
And after his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the
election, he told the media that in the new context where the BJP had a
comfortable position in Lok Sabha, he could only request the Central
Government to consider Andhra Pradesh’s demand for the special category
status, and that he did not have the numbers to exert pressure on the Modi
government.01
02
03
04
reddy wanted to be the
chief minister in 2009, but
the congress refused to
grant it
in 2019, chandrababu
naidu paid the price for
his mahagathbandhan
against modi
he formed his own
party and lost
the assembly
polls in 2014
Jagan has won but
has admitted he did
not want modi to win,
and yet has no option
snapshots
politics|Jaganmohan reddy