GUNTUR: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was unanimously elected as the lifetime president of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) on Saturday. On the second day of the plenary in Guntur, an amendment was made to the party’s constitution to enable Jagan as YSRC president for a lifetime. The YSRC was established by Jagan in 2011 after parting ways with Congress.
A total of 22 sets of nominations were filed on behalf of Jagan for the post of national president of the party and there were no other nominations.
YSRC general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP V Vijayasai Reddy announced the election of Jagan as the party president amidst huge applause from the massive gathering. The party made two important amendments to the constitution. The first was changing the name of the party from Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party to YSR Congress Party which can also be referred to as YSRCP. The second was changing the tenure of the post of president to lifetime.
Soon after the declaration of the election of Jagan as lifetime president of YSRCP, party leaders vied with each other to congratulate him. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s mother YS Vijayamma, who resigned to the post of honorary president of the party on Friday, was also present on the occasion.
Jagan tears into TDP
Seeking to put the Opposition in a spot of bother, Jagan told the party cadre and people in general that a vote for the yellow party, the TDP, is a vote against the ongoing welfare programmes. Jagan gave a point-to-point rebuttal to each and every allegation of the Opposition TDP about his government schemes and welfare measures. In his combative speech, Jagan took exception to the charges of the TDP that his government is turning AP into another Sri Lanka which is now facing an economic emergency. “In your 14 years regime, did you turn the state into America?’’
Jagan posed a straight question to TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. The Chief Minister said his government is not borrowing more than what the previous TDP government had borrowed during its tenure. Jagan said the wheels of cycle (symbol of TDP) have got deflated with the force of the ‘fan’ (symbol of YSRC).