Scene shifts to Delhi: YSR’s successor

Hyderabad, Sept 7 : 

As  September 9 approaches  when the  state mourning will be over, the  tension is building up in the  Congress circles here. On Monday, the  scene  shifted  from  Hyderabad to  New Delhi  with various congress leaders  meeting Sonia Gandhi and expressing their opinion on the choice of the leader to succeed the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

Keshava Rao, the member of the Congress Working Committee met Sonia Gandhi and expressed his unhappiness over the incident which  took place in Gandhi Bhavan on Sunday  during the condolence meeting.

U Arun Kumar the Congress MP  from Rajahmundry and V Hanumantha Rao, member of the Rajya Sabha  also met  Sonia Gandhi and had consultations. In fact all the  leaders  who met  Sonia Gandhi  assured her that they would  abide  by the High  Command’s decision on the choice of the leader.

Meanwhile Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late  Ysr, and a strong contender for the  CM’s post appealed to his supporters to remain calm and honour the decision of Sonia Gandhi on the  choice of the leader.

Sonia after discussing with  Veerappa  Moily, Union Law  Minister, instructed him to convey  the message to K.V.P. Ramchandra Rao , a loyalist of Ysr that supporters  of Jagan should refrain  from  applying  pressure tactics.

According to  reliable source KVP  will be leaving for New Delhi on Monday evening to meet Moily, Ahmed Patel and other senior Congress leaders to appraise them of the  latest situation in the Jagan camp.

The candidates in fray for the  chief minstership are  interim Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, APCC chief  D. Srinivas and union minister Jaipal Reddy apart from Jagan for  whom majority of the Congress MLAs  are rooting. Senior congress leader V Hanuamantha Rao made it clear that  he is not in the race for the  chair and this is  not the  time  to aspire for any such post.

It is learnt from party circles that  Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will fly to Hyderabad on Thursday to hold discussion with various groups within the Congress. Among the  prominent  leaders who  backed Jagan for the chief minister’s  seat are former chief minister N. Janardhan Reddy and  Congress Working Committee member G. Venkatswamy.