In a fresh offensive against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, YSR Congress party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has described her as selfish and said that she will go to any extent to see her son Rahul Gandhi as the next prime minister.
Speaking to mediapersons at his residence here on Thursday, the Kadapa MP said, “Sonia Gandhi wants to see her son as prime minister. In her anxiety, she does not care how the careers of students are being ruined in Andhra and Rayalaseema by her decision to divide the state.”
Reddy said the Congress central leadership’s immediate objective was to break the Samaikyandhra movement. “Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh says the intensity of the movement has come down. Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy persuades the NGOs to call off their strike. If Digvijaya is Sonia Gandhi’s right-hand man, Kiran does not cross the line she draws for him.”
He said the same strategy was being adopted in respect of Seemandhra central ministers. “They are now singing a different tune. They are seeking packages and not united Andhra Pradesh. Are they human beings?” he wondered.
He took strong exception to Naidu going on hunger strike at Delhi. “He, like an agent of the Congress, went on a hunger strike only to speed up division,” he said and warned Naidu and Kiran Kumar Reddy that people would not forgive them if they continued to deceive them under the travesty of fighting for united AP.
Jagan said that no one could question his Samaikyandhra credentials, not even Chandrababu Naidu. “Though I was in jail for 16 months, I fought for Samaikyandhra. Naidu continued to align with the Congress to do its bidding. Everyone knows how close Naidu is to the Congress and how he saved the government by issuing a whip to his MLAs to remain neutral during voting on the no-confidence motion in the Assembly recently and how his MPs had abstained from voting on FDI in Parliament to help the UPA survive the test,” he said.
The YSRCP chief, recalling his representation to governor ESL Narasimhan earlier in the day, said that he sought a direction to the government to convene the Assembly immediately for passing a resolution for keeping the state united. “I had made a similar representation to the governor sometime ago. But nothing has happened and the cabinet note on Telangana has been approved in the meanwhile. At least now, before the Telangana draft bill is referred to the Assembly, let the chief minister call a special session of the Assembly and pass a resolution against bifurcation of the state,” he said and added, “Our party MLAs will stage a dharna at Kiran Reddy’s residence tomorrow and make a representation to speaker Nadendla Manohar seeking holding of a special session of the Assembly.