Jagan resumes his yatra today
The Congress on Wednesday appeared to have piped down on the controversial yatra of Mr Jaganmohan Reddy beginning on Thursday with the party saying it was not worried and Andhra Pradesh chief minister K. Rosaiah backtracking on his tough statement asking ministers and legislators to keep away from the campaign.
A defiant Jaganmohan left for Srikakulam on Wednesday evening to resume his Odarpu yatra, coinciding with his father Y.S.R. Reddy’s birth anniversary on Thursday.
The Congress, which on Tuesday threatened disciplinary action if Jagan defied the high command, on Wednesday said it was not worried by the issue related to “one MP” who could be indulging in “childish behaviour”.
“There are far greater issues to deal with, like the Jammu and Kashmir situation and the economy. This is not an issue on which we are worried about,” party spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters in Delhi.
“This is an issue of one MP,” she said, adding AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh M. Veerappa Moily will look into the issue at the state level when he returns from abroad.
Asked whether Jagan had defied the Congress directive by undertaking the yatra, Ms Natarajan said, “I am sure the MP knows what the party line is.”
Mr Rosaiah had talked of tough action in the morning against those violating the party directive and taking part in the yatra. “Whether or not to take part in the yatra is an individual choice but if any minister, MLA or MLC indeed takes part in the yatra, it will be a clear violation of the high command,” he told reporters in Hyderabad.
He said some of his Cabinet colleagues, MLAs and MLCs had approached him seeking his counsel on their participation in the yatra. “I told them clearly that they should not participate in the yatra as it did not have the Congress high command’s approval... If anyone violates this and takes part in the yatra, the party will deal with them appropriately.”
In the evening he rushed to Delhi and met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and later appeared to have a rethink on the issue. “The high command never said no to the Odarpu yatra. It felt that the yatra should not be like a victory march or a war-like yatra,” a statement, titled “Congress high command’s thinking on Odarpu yatra”, released in Delhi by Mr Rosaiah said. —PTI
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