Individuals pose no threat to party: Andhra chief minister

A day after former Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy claimed that the government in Andhra Pradesh was at his mercy, Chief Minister Nalalri Kiran Kumar Reddy Wednesday said individuals posed no threat to the party.
Addressing presidents of the district and city units of the party and other leaders, Reddy said the Congress had a 30 percent vote bank and one individual could not harm the party.
"We face the problem of Telangana and also the problem of one individual. We will tackle them one by one," Kiran Kumar said.
While sitting on a day's fast in New Delhi along with 24 legislators and two MPs of the Congress party to highlight woes of Andhra Pradesh farmers, Jaganmohan Reddy said he was doing the Congress party a favour by "not asking my legislators to resign".
As the legislators ignored his warning of disciplinary action and accompanied Jagan, as he was popularly known, at the fast, state Congress chief D. Srinivas said the party's central leadership would take appropriate action.
Pradesh Congress Committee joint secretary Gowri Shankar demanded that the leadership take action against the leaders who were supporting Jagan.
Both the chief minister and Srinivas discussed the latest political developments with the party leaders.
All India Congress Committee secretary P. Sudhakar Reddy said it was unethical for legislators to join hands with Jagan as they fought elections on a Congress ticket and were elected by carrying pictures of party president Sonia Gandhi.
Senior Congress leader and union Minister of Health Ghulam Nabi Azad also showered praise on the chief minister, saying he was in full command.
"He is one of the young and dynamic chief ministers. Despite the state going through most turbulent times, he is in full command," Azad said at the inaugural of the conference of state health ministers.
In a related development, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) indicated that it may support the government if necessary. All six legislators of the MIM called on Kiran Kumar Reddy.
"Nobody has resigned so far but if the resignations start, our party will sit and think," MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said while indicating that it would not be averse to supporting the government to protect secularism.
The Congress has 156 members, a slender majority in 294-member assembly. The party may be looking for support from the Praja Rajyam Party, which has 18 members, and the MIM to survive in case Jagan pulls out his loyalists.
Two rebel PRP legislators are also supporting Jagan.