With reports hinting at the alleged involvement of former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury’s supporters in tearing down Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s posters in Khammam last week, the Jaganmohan Reddy camp is impressing upon the high command that there is a deliberate attempt by a section of the state leaders to pit him against the Central leadership.

K V P Ramchandra Rao, a close friend of the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and a key figure in the ongoing succession battle in Andhra Pradesh, was in Delhi on Wednesday and apprised the party leadership of attempts by anti-Jagan leaders to project him as a “rebel”. According to sources, Rao brought with him photographs “proving” the link between Chowdhury and those behind the Khammam incident.

Initial reports had said Jagan’s supporters tore Sonia’s posters, and his detractors like V Hanumantha Rao and K Kesava Rao had dubbed the incident as yet another attempt by the chief minister aspirant to arm-twist the high command. Chief Minister K Rosaiah had lost no time writing to the Congress president, regretting the incident.

With the Central leadership taking a dim view of the Jagan camp’s “pressure tactics”, the latter has maintained that YSR’s son has no role in the concerted and vociferous demand by a section of the legislators and ministers to install him as chief minister.

The Jagan camp has even alleged that pronouncements of some senior leaders in his support were not always innocuous or sympathetic, but meant to rankle the high command. The statement by G Venkatswamy, for instance, arguing why Jagan could not become CM if Rajiv Gandhi could become prime minister after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

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