Cong has a problem: YSR son points to ‘people’s wish’

It was KVP who first started the campaign to demand that Jaganmohan be made the next CM. But the Congress high command asked him to tone it down and let it decide.

“KVP hasn’t uttered a word to his aides and friends about what transpired at the meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Though he briefed her on the political situation in the state and the need to make Jaganmohan CM,he did not get a response. He is under pressure from both sides,stuck between the two,” the sources said.

A member of the Andhra PCC,who accompanied KVP to New Delhi,said: “Jaganmohan is like a son to him. KVP cannot bring himself to be tough with him at a time when he and his family are still grieving.”

But pressure is being mounted through various quarters. The core group of ministers and MLAs don’t want to be seen as the only people rooting for Jaganmohan since it could land them in trouble with the high command. So they have worked out other strategies. After meeting Jaganmohan yesterday,NSUI representatives held a programme at Gandhi Bhavan today where they paraded people who had been helped by YSR.

Warangal acid attack victim T Pranita — she survived after several surgeries were performed with financial assistance from the government — made an emotional appeal for Jaganmohan at the meeting. Another group brought in people who had undergone free heart surgery under the Rajiv Arogyasri programme. They made a similar appeal.

Jaganmohan supporters are also waving snap polls conducted in Andhra Pradesh. One such poll by Nielsen for NTV said 78 per cent of those interviewed across the state considered Jaganmohan the best option for CM and 65 per cent said he would be able to fulfil his father’s dream better than other candidates.

Jaganmohan has been meeting ministers,MLAs,delegations of Congress workers daily at the CM’s residence in Begumpet. “At least a dozen ministers and several MLAs make it a point to meet Jaganmohan daily,sometimes more than once. They come and brief him on developments in Hyderabad and New Delhi,” sources said.