After a stunning defeat in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy faces a pivotal moment in his political career. As he strategizes a comeback, the question looms: can Reddy reinvent his leadership to resonate with voters and reclaim his position in the state’s political landscape?
No political party envies YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy right now. He has been left to fend for himself after he met his Waterloo in the recent Assembly elections. His morale seems to be at its lowest ebb if his tantrums at the TDP and the officials in the Andhra Pradesh government are any indication.
He is now trying to find a substratum to stand on. His covert friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now in the enemy camp and yet he cannot rub him on the wrong side with the CBI cases hanging like a Sword of Damocles on him. Except for the first day, Jagan Mohan Reddy did not attend the Assembly session.
However, he has been quite visible out of there. Even the I-PAC team, whose suggestions, it is said, he never acted on, is not active anymore, which is obvious as there are no elections in the near future. The YSRCP looks as though it is down and out.
Jagan’s mood after elections
After the YSRCP suffered a molecular disintegration in the elections, the former chief minister appeared more surprised than shocked. The total rout of his party made the YSRCP chief, for the first time, wonder why the people had punished him so brutally.
On the day the verdict was out, he waxed philosophically, reflecting on all he had done for the people and wondering why the ₹2.7 lakh crore money that he had transferred into the accounts of the people’s bank accounts during his five-year term as the chief minister, did not fetch him political dividends. But he also bared the streak of the fighter in him, saying he was not new to facing challenges in public life.
As Chandrababu Naidu took over as the chief minister of the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh for the second time at a glittering ceremony, Jagan Mohan Reddy watched the paradise he had ruled unrestrained going into the hands of his adversary helplessly. The first sign of his desperation appeared when he flew off the handle at the police officials when the first session of the new Assembly was to begin. The police stopped him and his MLAs in their tracks, insisting that they would not allow them if they carried placards.
One policeman had even snatched the placards from them which sent Jagan Mohan Reddy into a rage. He warned the policeman that the wheel of fortune would always turn full circle in a democracy and that he should watch out. Despite heated arguments, the police had the last laugh as Jagan Mohan Reddy and his MLAs were allowed only after they gave up their placards.
That he was not prepared to see Chandrababu Naidu as the chief minister in the Assembly or Ch Ayyanna Patrudu in the speaker’s chair, or actor Pawan Kalyan with derisive smiles on his face, became evident when he stopped going to the Assembly. In fact, he had already said his party would have a limited role in the Assembly as the size of his flock of the MLAs shrunk to 10 besides himself.
Jagan vs Chandrababu Naidu
As Jagan’s bete noire, Chandrababu Naidu – who is now in the saddle, appears set on settling scores for sending him to jail in “skill development scam,” – the former CM appeared to have read the tea leaves very clearly. Naidu is not only the chief minister now but one whose support is indispensable for the survival of the Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre. This opened another foreboding possibility for Jagan Mohan Reddy. Naidu could always force Modi to order the CBI to go after Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Keeping the adverse possibilities in mind, Jagan Mohan Reddy began picking up the pieces of his political life and appeared to be making a sincere effort to rise. This seems essential for him as it is the only way to keep the TDP at bay and at the same to retain the leaders with him who are showing signs of deserting him.
If they have not yet left him, it is because there are not many options available to them. They are pariahs for the TDP, Jana Sena and BJP. The only alternative left is the Congress but there too, doors have not yet opened since the APCC is being led by Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister YS Sharmila who does not want to have anything to do with either Jagan or his leaders.
Now that the scales have fallen off his eyes, Jagan Mohan Reddy is more in the public. He visited the family of YSRCP activist who was murdered allegedly by TDP workers in Vinukonda in erstwhile Guntur district recently with full optics. All along the route, he stopped his convoy at several villages and kept waving at the people. It resurrected memories of his “vodarpu yatra” which went on for more than four years to commiserate with the families whose bread winners died after hearing the news of the death of late YS Rajsekhar Reddy in 2009.
He remained in the midst till he captured power in 2019, knowing fully well that it was the only insurance against any moves of his adversaries – the Congress at that time and TDP after Naidu became the chief minister of Andhra in 2014.
According to sources, in a prelude to be in the midst of the people – he needs their support now more than ever before – he organised a protest at Delhi recently on the “wave of violence” let loose by the TDP in the state against the YSRCP workers. Though no NDA leader visited the dharna camp despite the party inviting them, India Bloc leaders did attend, including Akhilesh Yadav, but they did not represent the India Bloc as they visited in their individual capacity.
Interestingly, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s “jigri dost” former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also did not send any representative to the dharna camp, apparently not intending to hurt the BJP bosses as there is too much at stake for the BRS too.
Jagan and his sister Sharmila
Jagan Mohan Reddy is yet to embark on mass-contact programme though he should have. He did not utilise the opportunity to visit people when Andhra was buffeted by torrential rains like never before in the recent past. In fact, his sister Sharmila, stole a march over him by visiting Godavari districts and even entered flood waters which ran up to her waist to interact with the people.
“We never expected that she would go to the extent of getting into the flood waters that deep. She is also made of sterner stuff like her brother,” one Congress leader told #Khabarlive. Jagan Mohan Reddy probably had thought that keeping the party cadres intact was more important in the present circumstances than taking a deep dive into the issues that are affecting the people.
As cadres constitute the party, he appears to be trying to keep them together as without power, that too having lost elections so miserably, he would have to put in double the efforts to retain them.
According to sources, the I-PAC team is not very active now. Though Reddy had hired them while preparing for the elections, it is said he hardly listened to any of the suggestions they made. “He was sure of himself about everything, and you cannot get your word edgeways with him,” said one YSRCP source.
“His hubris blinded him to what was happening at the ground level. This was the main reason for his fall, despite doing a lot to the poor by way of transferring cash to their bank accounts,” he said. At the moment, MLAs and former legislators are not responding to calls from the Jagan Mohan Reddy’s office. They are taking it easy when they are summoned to be present at his residence for disusing the issues or planning any programme against the TDP government.
“The situation is very pathetic. It remains to be seen how he is going rise, given the bumpy road ahead. But he has the fighting spirit in him like his arch-rival Chandrababu Naidu,” he said, not ruling out that Jagan would be back in reckoning before long.
Said academician and political analyst Prof D A R Subrahmanyam: “Jagan Mohan Reddy would continue to enjoy the patronage of Narendra Modi since he is more dependable than Chandrababu Naidu who is Nitish Kumar of Andhra. This way, Jagan Mohan Reddy would have some kind of protection as he tries to rise from ashes.
Narendra Modi would want Jagan Mohan Reddy to find his feet to keep the Congress in check as it might creep in and occupy the Jagan Mohan Reddy’s space if he becomes weak. All said and done, Jagan Mohan Reddy has 40 percent voting in the state, a fact that PM would not lose sight of. Another characteristic of Modi is that he revels in playing one leader against the other to prevent both of them from growing,” Prof Subrahmanyam said. #hydkhabar
About The Author
