In the end, it was the invocation of the Congress high command by Rajya Sabha member Dr K V P Ramachandra Rao that succeeded in obtaining what an appeal by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy himself could not: a winding down of the high-voltage campaign to have the 39-year-old son of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy anointed his successor.

Between 2 pm and 3 pm on Sunday, a distraught and weeping KVP addressed YSR’s former council of ministers at the state government’s Lake View Guesthouse. The leaders had arrived from a tumultuous meeting at Gandhi Bhavan, the state Congress headquarters, where a condolence ceremony for YSR had turned into a massive demonstration in favour of making Jaganmohan chief minister. The ministers had decided they would not back Rosaiah, and would skip the swearing-in scheduled for later in the day.

“My atma is YSR’s atma, his atma is my atma,” a highly emotional KVP, a close friend of the late chief minister, told the ministers.

“For a moment, imagine he is addressing you. Stop this campaign (to make Jaganmohan chief minister). I plead before you to accept the high command’s decision. For us in the Congress, the high command’s word and decision are final. We don’t question it. No one goes against the high command. Whatever is your wish, now is not the time for it. The state is in crisis and we must all work together to pull it out of it. Go and take oath for the new Cabinet (led by Rosaiah),” KVP said.

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