This is a show of strength which has become a nightmare for the aam aadmi. To press the case of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for chief ministership after the death of his father, former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, people — around 20,000, according to some estimates — gather daily outside his house at Begumpet.

How many of them turn up on their own and genuinely want Jaganmohan as Chief Minister is debatable because most of them accompany Congress leaders or workers or MLAs. The crowds have become a headache for the police and security personnel posted at the official CM bungalow. Inside, barricades and railings to regulate the queues have been erected as people stream in from 6 am till well past midnight.

On Saturday, 16 days after YSR’s demise, tribals from Vizag district in their colourful attire, complete with head gears and feathers, waited anxiously outside the gates. Besides the crowds, hundreds of curious onlookers gathered there.

They did meet Jaganmohan but were all at sea when asked why they had come. A Congress leader from Vizag brought them to Hyderabad on behalf of the Aaraku and Vizianagaram MPs. They were told that they would be meeting ‘CM Jaganmohan’.

However, once they came out after meeting Jaganmohan, the group of 30 tribals found that the Congress leader had disappeared. Jaywalking across the busy Begumpet road, they searched for the mini-truck in which they had come. But that too had vanished. Fortunately one of them had the phone number of the Congress leader. After a few phone calls and invectives from security personnel, the driver of their vehicle arrived followed by the Congress leader.

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