Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Congress MP from Kadapa, was in Delhi on Monday. One of his agendas is said to be meeting the Congress high command over the visible lines of difference between him and the rest of the party thanks to his ill-fated decision to go ahead with his consolation tour in parts of Telangana.
His official purpose is to attend a Parliamentary Finance Committee meeting in the capital, but in addition, he is set to meet some key Congress leaders, including Sonia, to brief them about his version of party developments in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This move comes in the wake of several Congress leaders demanding disciplinary action against him for having disobeyed Sonia. Party president Sonia Gandhi, however, will not meet him, it is learnt.
Speaking to the media, Jagan said the Odarpu yatra was purely personal, and that he was doing it not as an MP or even a politician but as a son to his father, the late CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. He said he was conducting the tour as it was what he owed his father, and said that it must not be used to create a stand-off between him and the rest of the party. He also said his heart was "free of guilt", and that his intentions are clear.
On the question of using the tour for political gains, he said that the decision to undertake the tour was as old as YSR's death, and that he considered it his duty to console the families of those who died due to the late CM's demise. Jagan said that he had peacefully conducted the yatra in Khammam - a part of Telangana - before coming to Warangal, and challenged mediapersons to check their video tapes for any evidence of him raising political issues at the several meetings he addressed there. Jagan says he consoled about 50 families in the Khammam district.
Meanwhile,
those who sought Jagan's expulsion from the party have been criticized for airing the Congress' internal differences in public, by AICC secretary P Sudhakar Reddy.