A pall of gloom descended on Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy’s residence on Tuesday, a day after the CBI made her Accused No 4 in the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s illegal assets case.
It reminded one of a house visited by God’s curse! An endless stream of visitors, mostly women and her Cabinet colleagues, queued up to comfort her.
Sabitha too returned home from the Secretariat, cancelling her trip to Zaheerabad where she was to attend a funeral.
She switched off her mobile but there was no respite for her.
Some of her well-wishers even shed tears.
Sources told Express that Sabitha was distraught soon after news broke that her name figured in the charge-sheet on Monday.
Her anguish turned to anger and she rushed to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy with her resignation letter.
Sabitha, the sources confirmed, raised her pitch during her conversation with Reddy, questioning as to why she was being victimised for doing her job and asserting that she had never sought favours.
Reddy and her Cabinet colleagues, who too had arrived at the CM’s camp office by then, advised her not to worry and importantly, not to quit.
Reddy is understood to have asked her to wait for the charge-sheet copies to know what exactly are the charges framed against her.
It was only then that Sabitha left his office with her resignation letter.
“I have made my position clear to the Chief Minister since he is our leader.
I know I am not guilty.
I will fight it out in courts,” Sabitha later told her supporters.
By Tuesday morning, she regained her composure and appeared prepared for a legal battle.
AICC general secretary and Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, meanwhile, rang u p the Chief Minister to enquire about the fallout of the CBI move.
A decision on Sabitha’s continuance in the Cabinet is likely to be taken after party president Sonia Gandhi returns from abroad.
Several of her colleagues, who met her, reiterated their support and advice.
“Don’t be scared by the Opposition demand for your dismissal.
Don’t quit.
Stay and fight,” Information and Public Relations Minister DK Aruna told her.
Vatti Vasanta Kumar told her to hold her horses while Kanna Lakshminarayana felt there was no need for her to step down.
Back at her residence, visitors made discreet enquir ies about “madam’ s mood.”
Her staff made them sit in an ante room where a huge portrait of her late husband Indra Reddy is hung.
Sabitha, once in a while, came out, met the waiting crowd and tried to reassure them.
“I never craved for power.
My conscience is clean.
Nothing will happen to me,” she said, repeating herself as if to reassure her own self.