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     Ranga Side Hero Username: Ranga Post Number: 2591 Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 65.208.22.16 Rating: N/A |
TOI The arrest will lead to a groundswell in his favour and help him sweep the bye-elections. The understanding of the Congress leadership is that the party will in any case be routed in the by-elections and the YSR Congress will sweep. Hence arresting Jagan will not hurt the Congress. However, if Jagan sweeps the bypolls, it will lead to an exodus of Congress MLAs to the YSR Congress and may create trouble for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. It is to prevent this from happening the government has given a go ahead to the CBI to move forward full throttle. If Jagan is arrested -- and his empire dismantled -- this will go as a signal to all Congressmen planning to leave the party. With Jagan in jail, the prospects of the YSR Congress consolidating its position in the coming months will be limited. But rejigging the party in the state is not an easy task considering that YSR systematically destroyed all leaders in the party in the state: district level upwards and created his own team. Half the Congress MLAs in the state are first-timers loyal to the YSR family. These are the MLAs who have jumped to Jagan's camp or have been planning moves. Many of them are linked to the YSR family by ties of relationship or business. Even if they stay back in the Congress for the time being what they will do later cannot be predicted. The Congress in Andhra Pradesh has traditionally been run by the Reddys with Kapus and Dalits being the junior partners. With Chiranjeevi, a Kapu merging his Prajarajyam with the Congress, his caste men are demanding a bigger share of the pie. This is much to the discomfiture of the Reddys who feel they will be reduced to a second class status. Many aver that only Jagan can keep the Reddy flag flying. Jagan (a Christian) has made inroads into the Dalit votes, because a significant number are Christians. The Congress has been unable to find a matching Reddy leader - the experiment with Kiran Kumar Reddy being a non-starter. Sonia Gandhi must be ruing the day she gave a free hand to YSR. Taking advantage of this, YSR built a Congress party that was personally loyal to him. The loyalty has now got transferred to Jagan, who showed a thumb to the central party for the last two and half years ago. Now will the Congress be able to rise from the ashes in Andhra Pradesh? Only time will tell. |
