Jagan reaches capital, starts daylong fast

NEW DELHI - Surrounded by hundreds of supporters who travelled with him from Andhra Pradesh, former Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Tuesday began a daylong fast here to highlight the misery of farmers in the state.

He reached Delhi by a special train Wednesday morning and went straight to Jantar Mantar, the 186 years old masonry observatory in central Delhi, to begin the protest amid the chanting of slogans.

Eight legislators of the state’s ruling Congress as well as district leaders and farmers are also accompanying him, sources close to him said. His aides are hopeful that more legislators will join in.

Jagan, as he is popularly known, resigned from the Congress and his Kadapa parliamentary seat after accusing the party leadership of trying to divide the family by luring his uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy with a ministerial berth in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet.

Jagan has been on a collision course with the Congress since the leadership rejected his claim to the chief minister’s chair following the death of his father, the late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, in a helicopter crash on Sep 2, 2009. He moved the Election Commission last week for registering his newly floated political party.

Last month, nearly two dozen legislators shared the dais with Jagan when he undertook a 48-hour fast at Vijayawada, demanding compensation for farmers who lost their crops in the recent untimely heavy rains.