Jaganmohan's Jal Deeksha, which was supported by a number of Congress party leaders, urged the centre to do justice to Andhra Pradesh.
Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday stated that despite having the power to pull the rug from beneath the N Kiran Kumar Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh, he would stick to his promise and refrain from doing so.
Addressing the huge crowd of supporters and farmers from the state who had joined him on his 24-hour 'Jal Deeksha', the hunger strike he launched to highlight the adverse impact of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal verdict on the sharing of the River Krishna's waters, Jaganmohan Reddy described himself as a 'gentleman who kept his word'.
He said that he could have collapsed the Congress government by asking the MLAs to resign, but he did not do so.
"My people are very clear that they would contest on my party's ticket in 2014 and not on a Congress ticket," he added.
Jaganmohan Reddy added that the aim of the Jal Deeksha was to urge the centre to take corrective measures to mitigate the injustice done to Andhra Pradesh by the verdict, and to put and end to the plight of the farmers who had suffered heavily due to cyclones, untimely rains and floods over the last year.
He demanded that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh intervened to do justice to Andhra Pradesh, and to give a national project status to the Polavaram irrigation project, the Chevella-Pranahita project, the Uttara Andhra Sujala Sravanti project, the Devadula project, the Kamtalapalli lift irrigation and the Yellampally project.
Despite the state Congress leadership's best attempts to downplay the impact of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy leaving the party, the number of party legislators who have defied the party diktat and stood beside the former MP at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday seemed to suggest that he was emerging as a formidable foe.
30 serving legislators (a majority of them belonging to the ruling Congress party), a host of former legislators, and the ZPTC chairmen and leaders participated in the Jal Deeksha.
The huge turnout, which included as many as 24 Congress MLAs and 3 MLCs, besides the Praja Rajyam Party MLAs Shoba Naga Reddy and K Rama Reddy, and the TDP's B Naga Reddy and Prassanna Kumar, came despite the Congress' attempts to rein in the legislators.
The Jal Deeksha follows the Lakshya Deeksha, which was organised in the Krishna district and drew as many as 5 lakh people including farmers and political leaders. The slogan coined for the fast was "Farmers' Right, Our Fight".
The presence of the legislators is seen as an indicator of things to come when the Kadapa leader finally announces his political outfit in mid-March.
Courtesy: INN