Jagan quits Congress with mother, also resigns as MP

HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI - Fourteen months after Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy died in a helicopter crash, his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Monday resigned from the Congress and from parliament. Jagan’s mother Vijayalakshmi also quit the Congress as well as her Andhra Pradesh assembly seat.

However, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in the national capital that he has no “information on the matter so far”.

The office of the Lok Sabha speaker also said there was no “official intimation about Jagan’s resignation” from parliament.

In a hard hitting letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Jaganmohan Reddy, popularly known as Jagan, said he was pained over the attempts to create a rift in the party.

The Kadapa MP, however, appealed to his followers among state legislators not to resign.

Alleging that he and his family were insulted by the party on several occasions since the death of his father, Jagan said he had no other option.

“Why did you create division in the family? What crime had we committed?” Jagan asked, alleging that the party lured his uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy away with a ministerial post.

“I and my mother are resigning from the primary membership of the Congress party. After going through all this, we have no other option,” he said.

“You tried to isolate me hence I am going alone. I appeal to my followers not to resign,” Jagan said while assuring Sonia Gandhi that she need not fear a split in the party because of him.

Claiming that 150 MLAs had supported him to succeed his father, then chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who died in a helicopter crash in September last year, Jagan said he still did not run after the post.

However, it was not clear if Jagan would float a new party.

Jagan’s mother Vijayalakshmi was elected unopposed from Pulivendula constituency in Kadapa district in December last year, following YSR’s death.

Jagan’s sudden move came as his uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy is camping in the national capital for a berth in the state cabinet.

Jagan has been running a defiant campaign since the leadership turned down his claim for the chief minister’s post since after his father’s death.

The young MP has been targeting K. Rosaiah, who stepped down as chief minister last week on grounds of health. Last week, the leadership named state assembly Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy as Rosaiah’s successor.

Jagan’s move to quit the party came at a time when the leadership was planning to take disciplinary action against him for using his Sakshi television channel and media network to attack Sonia Gandhi.

Jagan was desperate after his uncle began lobbying for a ministerial post and close family friend K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao also distanced himself.

Rao, a member of the Rajya Sabha and a close friend of the late YSR, has now moved closer to the central leadership. On the direction of Kiran Kumar Reddy, he resigned late Sunday as the advisor to the state government.