Drawing faultlines in the Andhra Congress after the party high command sent clear signals it was reluctant to anoint him as the late YSR’s successor despite the clamour in the state unit, son Jaganmohan Reddy on Thursday told those with a line open to Delhi that the party “cannot ignore” the “wishes of the people”.

Sources said KVP Ramachandra Rao, YSR’s close friend who has been asked by the Congress leadership to put an end to the make-Jagan-CM campaign, was told by Jaganmohan to “consider the wishes of the people... you cannot ignore or stop them”.

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.

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