Jagan Meets KTR, Open To Federal Front Proposal

YSR Congress Party chief and Leader Of Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly Y S Jaganmohan Reddy today commended the initiative of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to create a Federal Front against the Congress and BJP at the Centre, and stressed the need for a higher number of seats in the Lok Sabha for regional parties to fight for the states' issues.

Addressing a joint press conference along with TRS working president K T Rama Rao at his Lotus Pond residence after their meeting on the Front, Reddy said, "We have discussed the proposed Federal Front and the injustices being meted out to the states by the Centre with KTR. The Centre will indeed yield if the states join hands for their issues. We have to appreciate the efforts of the TRS president KCR, and we will speak further on the proposal," he said.

Jagan expressed displeasure that the Centre had declined special status to Andhra Pradesh despite the promise made by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a fight by 25 MPs in Parliament.

"There is an imperative need for us to join together as the BJP government at the Centre is remaining mum on the promise of the previous government in Parliament to the Telugu people. If 17 MPs of Telangana and 25 MPs of Andhra Pradesh come together, we can exert pressure on the Centre, and KCR's efforts in this regard are appreciable," he said.

"This is a preliminary meeting, and things will shape up soon after next level meetings with KCR," he added.

Earlier, KTR said that as per the directive of KCR, the TRS had met with Reddy on the Federal Front proposal and sought his support for resolving state-level issues. KTR also promised to lend support for special category status for Andhra Pradesh, and pointed out that TRS MPs had already raised their voices in Parliament supporting the cause.

Those who attended the meeting included TRS leader and MP B Vinod Kumar, and YSRCP leaders including MP Vijay Sai Reddy, Y V Subba Reddy, S Ramakrishna Reddy, Partha Sarathi, Ch Bhasker Reddy, Mithun Reddy and V Prabhakar Reddy.

Meanwhile, Telangana TDP president L Ramana expressed his surprise over KCR, who he said had always criticized the YSR family, becoming a friend of Jagan.

Ramana said that January 16 would be a black day in the history of the country, as under the veil of a Federal Front, the YSRCP and the TRS were working as a B-team for the BJP.

With the handshake between Jagan and KTR today, the closely-guarded BJP-YSRCP-TRS partnership had come out in the open, he claimed. He recalled that KCR had once dubbed Jagan as most corrupt person in the country, and also asked KTR how he called on Jagan today when he had earlier said that Jagan had no right to talk about morality.