Jagan’s Reddy Strategy

YSR’s Congressman son wants to replace Andhra Pradesh’s CM, but he has the Reddy brothers in the shadows in case he needs to play an alternate game of rebellious politics.

Everyone in Hyderabad knows it. Jaganmohan Reddy wants to be the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. And he can’t wait. The question, really, is one of how well the son of former CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy (and Congress parliamentarian from Kadapa) has been playing his cards. Now that the Congress High Command in Delhi has made it a point to ignore his insurgency against the incumbent CM, K Rosaiah, the betting is that he will use his trump card—the Reddy brothers of Bellary, who are aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the moment.

As the Congress leadership watches with alarm, Jagan has been cosying  up to “family friends” Gaali Karunakar, Janardhan and the two brothers’ buddy B Sriramulu, whose iron ore interests in South India have already created quite a stir. If the Congress doesn’t act now to contain the influence of the trio, the party believes it might have big trouble on its hands. So it was that the Karnataka Assembly in Bangalore witnessed all night sit-ins last week by Congress legislators demanding that a CBI inquiry be ordered by the state’s BJP government into their alleged illegal mining operations. Nothing came of this novel protest, though the Election Commission did ask the Reddy brothers for an explanation on the related allegation of their holding ‘offices of profit’ (they are ministers in the Karnataka government). 

Karnataka’s Governor HR Bharadwaj may have taken up the issue, but the Reddy brothers are proving that they are no pushovers. They were with the Congress in the 1980s, before switching allegiance to the BJP when Sushma Swaraj contested against Sonia Gandhi in Bellary. But, shrewd as they are, when they began mining, it was YSR who granted them mining leases in Andhra Pradesh’s (AP’s) Anantpur area, bordering Karnataka. Since then, they have been in touch with Jagan, who has his own business empire based in Bangalore.

Recently, when the Reddy brothers and Jagan together floated Brahmani Steel, a Rs 30,000 crore project in Kadapa, they forged more than just a business partnership. “We are aware they will use the money and influence of the Reddy community in AP. We are ready to face it,” admits a senior Congress leader from AP who does not want to be named. “Immediately after YSR died, Jagan felt he was the rightful heir and started a public show of support to convince the Congress High Command,” he adds, “But Soniaji didn’t take the bait and instead appointed K Rosaiah to head the state.”

Rosaiah’s stature has been under Jagan’s attack ever since, and with his government lurching from one crisis to another, especially after the Telangana issue started, the challenge has grown more fierce. Jagan’s latest move, an odarpu yatra (thanksgiving) to meet families of those who committed suicide or died of shock on hearing of YSR’s demise, is now seen as his way to leverage his father’s memory and thumb his nose at the Congress High Command at the same time. Sonia Gandhi had asked him to put off his yatra, but he reacted by taking subtle digs at her grasp of ‘Indian culture’. Rosaiah, on his part, has directed Congressmen to stay away from it.

Does Jagan have back-up? It seems so. The Reddy brothers, led by G Janardhan Reddy, have let the BJP leadership hear that they can topple AP’s Congress government and install Jagan instead—to be mulled over by a BJP chintan baithak scheduled in the last week of July.

The brothers are lying low, but few doubt their behind-the-scenes power. At the height of the Congress clamour against them, Karnataka’s BJP Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa went to Delhi and had a breakfast meeting with them, assuring them (and the BJP leadership) that everything was under control, and that their positions were secure regardless of the illegal mining scam.

As it happens, the Reddy brothers also have a score to settle against Rosaiah; it was he who had dragged their Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC) to the Supreme Court. The apex court has since ordered an empowered committee to look into allegations of illegal mining in AP forests and other AP-Karnataka border areas, which were fudged on maps to carry on such operations with impunity. To ascertain the truth, the Supreme Court had ordered the Survey of India to map the inter-state border using GPS systems as well as old revenue maps from pre-Independence India. 

The committee’s report accused OMC of illegally mining iron ore worth Rs 54,000 crore and paying just Rs 50 crore royalty instead of Rs 550 crore.

In the Godavari basin, Jagan masks are multiplying, and one can sense why. It’s 2 am at Ramachandrapuram in AP’s East Godavari district, and an expectant crowd is being told that “Jagan anna (brother) is just round the corner, coming to see you all and take your blessings”. It’s a crowd of about 1,500. “He should be made the CM,’’ says an old man. 

Suddenly, there’s a buzz as the odarpu yatra’s lead vehicle arrives to the tune of ‘Osthunnaa …’ (I am coming). Next up is a song-and-dance show that the Telugu film industry would envy. Jagan appears in an SUV, and makes his way towards a YSR statue, which he inaugurates by pouring milk on it with ritualistic élan. There are many such statues, and he’s done it before. 

A short speech later, he is off. No politics, no barbs. Just that he must visit bereaved families. “I will come back again,” he promises, and the crowd goes into raptures, with people flinging themselves forward to shake his hand, showering him with flowers, capturing the moment on frenzied mobile phones.

It’s not the sort of thing that pleases the Congress High Command. But that the party has a serious challenge to contend with is now beyond obvious. Everyday, from 9 am to at least 3 am the next morning, Jagan’s yatra is on a roll. There are planned stops and an equal number of unplanned ones. Swarms everywhere. 

“Let Sonia or Rahul come here if they have the guts. If they continue to show disrespect to Jagan anna, we will show them their rightful place,” says Madiga Chennappa, a supporter at Pandalapaka, where he and a motley group wait for over three hours in the sweltering sun to see their hero. 

Jagan makes no reference to Sonia Gandhi along his trail. What is his current equation with her? He speaks not on the matter. So long as she gets to see his popularity, his objective is achieved. Is money power his hidden weapon? Jagan smiles enigmatically, saying, “I do not want to give any interviews, as it may lead to misunderstandings.” On my persistence, he opts to respond with a hug—“Thank you for your support.” Clearly, he’s popular, but he’d rather not say anything he might regret. “The odarpu yatra is to visit those families whose members died of shock or committed suicide at the sudden demise of my father,” Jagan says in crisp English, a rarity in AP politics.

There’s a move afoot to form a breakaway party called the YSR Congress. “He has the money, manners and muscle to carry out the threat. No one wants to rub him the wrong way,” says a senior Congress leader. Which way Jagan goes could depend on how the party High Command treats him. The BJP, in the meantime, is waiting for a chance to score its second success in the South. 

Andhra PradeshJagan ReddyReddy brothers