Hyderabad: The Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party cruised to an overwhelming majority in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and swept 22 out the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state on Thursday, dealing a knockout blow to the N. Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) while announcing the young leader’s arrival as a new force on the national political stage.
With the twin success in parliamentary and Assembly elections, Mr Reddy, the son of late Congress leader Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy, has proven his credentials as the comeback man.
Buoyed by a comfortable majority of over 145 seats in the 175-member Assembly, the 47-year-old leader, who has toiled for political survival for a decade, is set to become Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister, a dream that he had seen soon after his father’s death in September 2009.
Mr Reddy’s aversion to the Congress is well known as he was prevented by the party from taking the place of his late father as Andhra chief minister. He became a Congress Lok Sabha MP from Kadapa in 2009 but quit the party in November 2010 and resigned from Parliament over differences with seniors. He later launched the YRS Congress.
Apart from his achievement in state politics, Mr Reddy, popularly known as Jagan, has achieved the status of a tall national leader, a fact reflected in the special appreciation he won from BJP president Amit Shah in the latter’s victory speech in Delhi on Thursday.
Mr Reddy, who is likely to take oath as Andhra Pradesh chief minister in the temple-town of Tirupati on May 30, is now in the big league of regional satraps like TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, DMK chief M.K. Stalin, BSP chief Mayawati, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, BJD president Naveen Patnaik and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao who have the numbers in the Lok Sabha to deal with the Centre on their own terms.
The YSR Congress’ convincing win in the Assembly election and its achievement of bagging a majority of parliamentary seats in the state have helped the YSR Congress chief vanquish the TDP and shatter the hopes of outgoing chief minister Mr Naidu of playing a king-maker’s role at the Centre.
During his roller coaster political journey, Mr Reddy faced CBI cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, Money Laundering Act and also IPC in alleged quid pro quo deals that were struck by his business firms during his father’s tenure as chief minister.
The YSR chief spent 16 months as an undertrial in jail after his arrest on May 27, 2012, in the corruption cases. He is still facing trial in these cases in Hyderabad.
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