Rosaiah gets support of senior leaders

In a new twist to the ongoing campaign to make Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy as the Chief Minister, a group of senior party leaders at a meeting here on Saturday decided to rally behind Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and the APCC chief D. Srinivas by asking party cadres to fall in line and back the high command’s decision.

At the meeting, which was held at the residence of former Minister Palvai Goverdhan Reddy here, former PCC chief P. Narsa Reddy, APCC spokesperson B. Kamalakar Rao and MLCs K. R. Amos and K. Yadava Reddy came out openly in support of the Chief Minister.

During the over two-hour-long discussion over lunch, these leaders, who were earlier vocal in demanding separate statehood for Telangana, resolved to take up a new slogan of loyalty to the high command. The leaders reportedly faulted Ministers for not extending cooperation to Mr. Rosaiah and felt it amounted to gross disobedience to the respected Chief Minister and violation of the AICC’s diktat. The Ministers should take up the issue of Jagan with the party’s central leadership directly instead of resorting to such tactics. The meeting also expressed resentment at the disruption of membership drive by workers, demanding that Mr. Jagan be made the Chief Minister. The leaders opined that YSR himself never defied the high command and took all important decisions in consultation with it.

The APCC president called on Mr. Rosaiah on Saturday night and is understood to have discussed organisational matters of the party, including the ongoing membership drive.

Meanwhile, K. V. P. Ramachandra Rao, YSR’s aide, is likely to visit New Delhi on September 29, the third such trip in a fortnight. Sources said Dr. Rao is scheduled to attend a Parliamentary committee meeting, but is likely to resume his efforts to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi and other central leaders to convince them to take a decision on Mr. Jagan.
Strong message

YSR’s loyalists took stock of the developments at Jagan’s meeting at Nallakalava in Kurnool district on Friday and expressed satisfaction that it could send across a strong message to the party leadership about the mass support for YSR and his family. The meeting, which was held at Dr. Ramachandra Rao’s residence, was attended by Ministers Shilpa Mohan Reddy, Gade Venkat Reddy and Md. Syed Ahmedullah besides others.

While there was no political overtones in the speech, some leaders felt it would have been better if Mr. Jagan had made some reference to the party high command and to Ms. Sonia Gandhi.

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