Jagan’s Delhi visit raises eyebrows

Vijayawada: The sudden decision of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to go to Delhi just a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah met TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu late on Wednesday night and invited the TDP to join the NDA has become an issue of political debate in the state.

While the Opposition feels that this shows the nervousness of the YSRCP leader, government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy told the media that they were confident of coming back to power because of the welfare schemes they had launched during the last five years. He said Naidu will go anywhere for alliances as he knows he cannot win on his own. Apart from the alliances, he was also using Y S Sharmila as a hired mike, he commented. “Congress is a dead party in AP,” he said.

Sajjala said nothing much should be read into the visit of Jagan to Delhi and his proposed meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. He said it would be a government-to-government meeting to seek funds for the irrigation projects and urge his intervention in the release of funds due from the Centre to the state.

Replying to another question, he said the YSRCP was sure of winning all the three Rajya Sabha seats in the biennial elections. The TDP may try its best but will fall flat as they do not have the required strength. They need 44 MLAs to win a seat and even if with the four MLAs who left the YSRCP indulging in cross voting their strength is only 21.

But the interesting factor that needs to be noted here is that on Thursday when the last day of the budget session of the Assembly began, it had to be adjourned briefly as there was no quorum. Around six MLAs were present in the House. The party on record has 151 members. The Opposition parties said that this shows the mood of the YSRCP MLAs. The TDP said there were several members unhappy with the YSRCP and would vote for the TDP and it would easily win one seat.