I can bring down Congress government in Andhra: Jagan

NEW DELHI - Former Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy said here Tuesday that he could bring down the party’s government in Andhra Pradesh but was doing it a favour by not asking his legislators to resign.

Jagan, as he is popularly known, came to the capital with more than 3,000 supporters and held a massive show of strength that included 24 Congress legislators and two MPs. He undertook a daylong fast to highlight the “injustice” to Andhra Pradesh in the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal Award and the plight of farmers.

“Currently, I am doing a favour to the Congress party. If my MLAs resign, the government there will fall. In fact I am a gentleman so I am doing a favour to the Congress party by not asking my people to resign. If I wanted to seriously do it, I would have done it long back,” he told reporters.

“I am being a gentleman here to ensure that the government there survives. If the Congress party does want to take action then my people are very categorically saying that they are continuing in this party only because I am asking them to,” he said when asked about the statement by state Congress chief D. Srinivas that the party would take action against MPs, MLAs and other supporting him.

“My people are also saying in 2014 they will be contesting on my party ticket and not on a Congress party ticket. They are openly exhibiting that they are doing a favour to Congress party by continuing in the party,” the former Kadapa MP said at Jantar Mantar, the 186-year-old observatory in central Delhi.