Jagan campaign emotional, not orchestrated: KVP

The central leadership of the Congress was engaged in extensive consultations with party leaders from Andhra Pradesh a day before the end of the mourning period on Thursday, after which a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting is likely to be convened to choose Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s successor.

K V P Ramchandra Rao, the late YSR’s close friend and advisor who is a key figure in the ongoing succession battle, on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apprise him of the political situation in the state. This came a day after his 90-minute meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and AICC in-charge of the state Veerappa Moily were the other senior leaders on his appointment list.

In his deliberations with the Central leadership, Rao sought to neutralise the negative vibes in New Delhi against Jaganmohan explaining how the over-the-top ‘Jagan-as-CM’ campaign by legislators and MPs from the state was spontaneous emotional outpourings, and not an orchestrated attempt to pressurise the high command as projected, according to Congress sources.

While there was no indication of any rethink from the Congress high command, which is learnt to have reservations against Jaganmohan’s candidature on account of his inexperience, there were some alternative names being explored with Union minister S Jaipal Reddy being one of them. They, however, did not find favour with Jaganmohan’s supporters who argued that these candidates came nowhere near the late YSR in terms of his stature and would not be acceptable to the people in the state. Party leaders believe that caretaker CM K Rosaiah could be the only compromise candidate if Jaganmohan’s claims are overlooked.