HYDERABAD: The Congress appears to have more or less decided to target only YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and maintain silence on the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, while campaigning for the byelections to 18 Assembly seats.
The Congress leaders prefer this strategy since they are afraid that any diatribe against YSR would prove counterproductive. Already, there is opposition to the idea that the Congress should go after both the father and son. YSR Congress said if the Congress says a word against YSR, it will bite the dust in the elections.
The Congress party decided to criticise Jagan Mohan Reddy’s corruption and explain development and welfare programmes in byelection campaign. Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s decision to roll back partially the hike in power tariff is apparently to appease voters who are feeling that they were taken for a ride by the government.
According to PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana, the byelection campaign would be devoid of YSR’s picture. In Kovur segment in Nellore district, the campaign was without any reference to YSR.
Botcha said during the election campaign they would explain what the government had been doing for the benefit of the people for the last few years. Without mentioning the name of YSR, the party leaders would assert that all the welfare programmes launched by the Congress government would be continued, a Congress leader said.
The PCC chief is of the view that YS Rajasekhara Reddy and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy worked hand in glove while benefiting private companies for quid pro quo investments into Jagan Mohan Reddy’s companies. When the father is chief minister, why would his son go after secretaries to do him favours, Satyanarayana asked in reaction to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s statement that he never called up any official and minister for any favour during the tenure of his father as chief minister.