Under fire from party leadership for violating the Congress high command?s directive asking him not to go ahead with his Odarpu (consolation) yatra in Telangana region last week, Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday struck a defiant note, saying he was ready to quit the Lok Sabha if anyone proved that he had made any attempt to politicise his yatra. He also refused to call it off.
?It cannot be stopped. I have sought appointments with the party high command to apprise them of what has happened. I will explain them that I have done nothing wrong,? the Congress MP told reporters here. He came here on Sunday night and has sought appointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other senior leaders of the party.
According to the Kadapa MP, as a ?dutiful? son of his late father, it was his ?moral responsibility? to meet and console the families of those who had laid their lives for his father. ?It is my duty and moral responsibility. I went to Khammam district some time back and met 54 families there. Never ever had I made a single political statement. You can recall the tapes and if you can prove that even in one meeting in Khammam district in Telangana I have politicised (the yatra), I am ready to go to any extent; even I am ready to resign,? said Jaganmohan. ?I am committed (to carry on with my yatra) to that level.? Son of former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Jaganmohan had embarked on a tour of the state to console the families of those who had either died of heart attack or committed suicide following the tragic death of his father in a helicopter crash. While he maintained that his yatra was non-political, his rivals in the Congress believed that it was a political move to shore up his support base in a show of strength.
Last Friday, he had been taken into preventive custody and forced to abandon the yatra after violence erupted in Mahaboobabad town in Warangal district in Telangana region. Telangana Rashtra Samiti and other pro-Telangana groups had opposed his yatra in Telangana. AICC in-charge of Andhra Pradesh and Law Minister Veerappa Moily had asked him not to go ahead with the yatra, given the situation in the region, but Jaganmohan had defied it.
At least nine party MPs from Telangana criticised Jaganmohan for not heeding requests from Congress leaders, state government and the police. MPs led by Malkajgiri MP Sarvey Satyanarayana blamed Jaganmohan for causing violence in the region. ?What is the reason for starting this condolence tour eight months after YSR?s demise? This is a conspiracy to disturb peace in the region,? he said.
