Virtually conceding that the post of chief minister is beyond his grasp, the Y S Jaganmohan Reddy camp is veering round to the view that supporting the division of the state would raise the Kadapa MP's hopes of becoming chief minister of the new Andhra-Rayalaseema state.If the state is divided, the Congress would have a strength of 106 out of the total 175 MLAs of the new Seemandhra state with 32 of them from the Rayalaseema region. "With this number, the Congress can easily form the government without taking the support of parties like PRP. And with 80 per cent of the Congress MLAs from these two regions on his side, we hope that Jagan could realise his dream in the new state. And such an eventuality would also put to rest any possible demand for division of Rayalaseema from the Andhra region," said a Jagan loyalist.
With this idea in mind, the Jagan camp is reportedly working to identify loyal workers right from the mandal level in these two regions so that the machinery is in place if and when the division of the state takes place. "We are putting this plan into action as we are sure now that Jagan has no chance of succeeding Rosaiah as the CM of the undivided AP," conceded the loyalist. Two factors are said to have contributed to the Jagan camp coming to this realisation. One, that Jagan has rubbed the Congress high command including president Sonia Gandhi the wrong way with his aggressive campaign for the CM's post and chartering an independent line with his Odarpu yatra, and two, that the Kadapa MP has virtually become a persona non grata in the Telangana region.
By totally ignoring his claims for the CM's post, the high command has made it amply clear that even after Rosaiah, they might consider somebody else for the top post but not Jagan. According to AICC sources, although the high command is totally disapproving the stubborn attitude of Jagan, it does not want to take action against him as it feels that it would only strengthen his hands.
The second factor is the antipathy of the people of the Telanganaa region to not only Jagan, but to all those including TDP and PRP chiefs N Chandrababu Naidu and Chiranjeevi respectively, who have opposed the division of the state. "The Mahbubabad incident was a major setback to Jagan. The Kadapa MP's detractors have succeeded in permanently closing the gates of Telangana on him. The incident even unnerved his staunch supporters from Telangana. We cannot enter the region in the near future," admitted sources.
The Jagan camp is now eagerly waiting to see what is in store for Naidu and Chiranjeevi, both of whom are scheduled to visit Khammam district in the coming week to hold protest against leasing of Bayyaram mines allegedly to a firm in which the YSR family has a stake. While Naidu's visit is scheduled for Aug 30, the PRP chief is slated to visit Khammam the following day.
The Jagan camp thinks that both Naidu and Chiranjeevi will meet the same fierce resistance from the people of Telangana as he got at Mahbubabad when he set off on his Odarpu yatra. Incidentally, the TRS has already announced that it would not allow Naidu and Chiranjeevi to enter Khammam as they are anti-Telangana in essence.
"In this situation, working for united Andhra Pradesh is sheer waste of energy and time. We are of the view that agreeing for the division of the state is the best solution for Jagan to advance his political career," said the sources and also ruled out the MP leaving the Congress or taking the help of parties like BJP.
