Hyderabad: At a rally in Kadapa Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding the late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s name appearing in the CBI chargesheet linked to his son and Andhra Pradesh CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s disproportionate assets case, and said the allegations of his party’s involvement are baseless. He emphasised that the Congress “can never do anything against YSR, his image”.
Rahul’s comments were an apparent response to the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Jagan’s persistent remarks insinuating the Congress leadership “unfairly put him in jail for 16 months” in 2012.
In 2012, the CBI, then under the Manmohan Singh government, had named YSR in a chargesheet before a special court, reportedly charging the late Andhra Pradesh CM as entering into a criminal conspiracy to allot land to two pharma firms in a quid pro quo arrangement for investing in Jagan’s businesses.
Later that year in May, Jagan was arrested by the central probe agency and was lodged in a Hyderabad jail for 16 months till his release on bail in September 2013.
On Saturday, the last day of campaigning for the simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh scheduled for 13 May, Rahul was in the YSR family home turf, YSR Kadapa district, in support of the Congress Andhra Pradesh unit chief and Kadapa Lok Sabha candidate Y.S. Sharmila.
In the rally, Rahul said YSR was “a brother to his father Rajiv” and a political mentor to him after his father’s demise. He added that his Bharat Jodo Yatra was inspired by YSR’s 2003 padayatra across united Andhra Pradesh.
“YSR had encouraged me to go on such a yatra nationwide. My mohabbat ki dukaan message is inspired by YSR’s thought of an all-inclusive welfare governance approach, which Andhra Pradesh is now missing,” said Rahul.
YSR’s famed yatra connecting with the masses, among other factors, helped the Congress win the combined state and majority of Lok Sabha seats, enabling it to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre in 2004.
The feat was repeated under YSR leadership in 2009. However, the charismatic Congress CM died in a chopper crash later that year. The accident threw the state Congress into a crisis, with Jagan rebelling against Sonia Gandhi, launching YSRCP in 2011 and successfully claiming YSR’s political legacy.
Rahul, along with Sharmila and her husband “Brother” Morusupalli Anil, Congress leaders K.C. Venugopal and K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao visited the YSR memorial at Idupulapaya, 60 km from Kadapa, and paid floral tributes.
Later, addressing a party rally called ‘AP Nyaya Sadhana Sabha’ in Kadapa town, Rahul said he wanted to explain to the people the bond between Congress and YSR.
“It is undetachable. Congress can never go or do anything against YSR and his reputation. These CBI case name inclusion allegations are untrue. The Congress never included YSR’s name in the chargesheet, it was some vested interest deed,” Rahul told the audience. “He was, is ours; we can never harm him or his image.”
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‘Send my chelli to Parliament’
With Sharmila by his side, Rahul appealed to the voters to send her to Parliament, adding that he never made such an appeal in any candidate’s favour before.
“YSR’s daughter, my chelli (sister) is now here in the Kadapa contest. You have to send her to Parliament to keep the YSR ideology intact. I have not asked for such a guarantee in any other constituency, but here I am pleading with AP and Kadapa people, as I want Andhra Pradesh’s janata ki awaaz heard in Lok Sabha. It is not possible for TDP (Telugu Desam Party) or YSRCP parties as they are controlled, but Modi (PM Narendra Modi) cannot pressure Sharmila,” said Rahul.
Kadapa Lok Sabha segment has become the ground zero of the YS sibling rivalry. Despite his sister being in the fray, Jagan has renominated Y.S. Avinash, a cousin, as the YSRCP candidate even as the CBI named the sitting MP an accused in their uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy’s 2019 murder case.
The siblings have been at loggerheads since 2021, when Sharmila parted ways forming the YSR Telangana Party. She merged the party with the Congress last year and was made the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) chief this January.
In this context, Rahul’s reference to Sharmila as chelli has caught the Kadapa public attention, who cheered at the mention.
Continuing the tirade against her brother, Sharmila, speaking before Rahul, alleged Jagan’s “behest in YSR’s name inclusion in CBI chargesheet to ease out of the case”.
‘Who’ll give those 16 months back to me?’
A day before Rahul’s visit, Jagan addressed a rally in Kadapa town Friday.
“When nanna (father) died in 2009, you all know how our family was troubled by them (Congress). Now, after all these years, these people from Delhi are coming to pay tributes at YSR samadhi…at election time. YSR followers, Andhra Pradesh’s public have cremated that party long back. A vote for Congress will make us co-conspirators in the plan to erase YSR legacy,” Jagan cautioned the audience.
The YSRCP chief again accused the Congress of having attempted to discredit YSR’s name and reputation after his death.
“The party named YSR in the chargesheet. It kept me, YSR’s son, unfairly in jail for 16 months. Who will give me those 16 months back? And now, it has gone a step further to accuse us of getting the YSR name inserted in the case. Does that party have any ethics, humanity, an iota of gratitude?” Jagan questioned.
Both Sharmila and Suneetha Narreddy, Y.S. Vivekananda’s daughter, have been raking up the murder case in their campaigns — publicly reprimanding Jagan for renominating Avinash.
In response, Jagan is accusing his two sisters of becoming part of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and his political partners’ BJP-JSP conspiracy against him.
On Friday, talking to reporters in Kadapa, Sharmila broke down while talking about Jagan’s remarks and “injustice meted out to her”.
On Saturday, Sharmila likened Jagan to a chameleon, saying that at YSR crash time, he had accused the hand of a top corporate conglomerate in the country, but later, as CM, nominated a person from the same company to Rajya Sabha from his party.
“As an Opposition leader, he demanded a CBI probe in the Viveka (Y.S. Vivekananda) case and as CM retracted from the same demand. So, Sharmila who campaigned for him earlier, turned against Jagan to fight the injustice.”
Meanwhile, Sharmila’s team has released a short video appeal from Y.S. Vijayamma appealing to Kadapa voters to send her daughter to Parliament to serve them like her husband YSR. Vijayamma, sources said, is in the US, away from the political heat and sibling rivalry.
Also Read: Sharmila ‘is also YSR’s blood’, but in family bastions Kadapa & Pulivendula, brother Jagan is supreme
‘BJP stands for Babu, Jagan and Pawan’
In the Kadapa Congress rally, Rahul said the BJP stands for Babu, Jagan and Pawan — a reference to TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy and Jana Sena’s Pawan Kalyan, who are fighting Jagan in alliance with the BJP in the polls.
“While YSR was representing Andhra Pradesh’s voice and aspirations in Delhi, sadly those in power now are cowed. While YSR was ideologically opposed to the BJP, it is BJP’s B team — Babu, Jagan and Pawan — operating in the state now. Their remote control is in Modi’s hands as he controls ED, CBI etc,” said the Congress leader, adding that Jagan has been mum on the state’s demands because of his cases.
He promised that, if elected, the Congress would prioritise fulfilling the promises made to Andhra Pradesh during its bifurcation, including Special Category Status, the Polavaram project, and the establishment of a Kadapa steel plant. “This is a 100 percent guarantee from me.”
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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