Hyderabad: YSR Congress president and AP Chief Minister-designate Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is trying to win over leaders from other regional parties who he hopes will support his demand for special category status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh which the BJP government is reluctant to accord.
Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and AP caretaker Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu tried to do much the same thing before the Lok Sabha results were out.
Mr Reddy was silent till the results were declared and now that he has won a resounding victory, he is trying to woo other regional leaders. He personally invited Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, DMK president M.K. Stalin, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy to attend his oath-taking ceremony as Chief Minister in Vijayawada.
According to sources, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to mobilise support of political parties that have a good number of MPs to garner support for special category status for AP.
The Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samiti have already announced their support for the cause.
Mr Reddy is not acquainted with many of these leaders, so he wants to take the opportunity of his oath-taking ceremony to meet them.
The DMK in Tamil Nadu has 23 MPs, the Biju Janata Dal has 12 MPs and the Janata Dal United has 16 MPs.
If Mr Reddy can get the support of other important parties that are friendly to the BJP, they might all help put pressure on Mr Modi on the SCS issue.
In West Bengal, the Trinamul headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has got 22 MPs, but she has not been invited to the oath taking ceremony, reportedly her differencess with the BJP are at its peak.
The YSRC, TRS, BJD, BJU and DMK put together will have 82 MPs. The Congress’ 51 MPs will support the demand for the SCS.
If more than 100 MPs put pressure on the centre, it will help to achieve SCS, which was the main election promise of the YSRC.
Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy also called Congress MP K.V.P. Rama Chandra Rao, who has always been very close to the Reddy family, to invite him to his oath taking ceremony.
