Kurnool, Sept 25 :
Mr Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of the former chief minister, late Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, on Friday clearly drew a road map for himself and spelt out his agenda of “realising the dreams of his late father.”
Addressing the first mammoth gathering after his father’s untimely death in a helicopter crash, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, popularly known as Jagan for his fans and well-wishers, gave a call to the massive crowd that gathered at Nalla Kaluva in the Nallamalai forests to join hands and come together to realise the ideals of Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The crowd who gathered from different corners of the State for the condolence meeting greeted Mr Jagan lustily whenever he named his late father and the tragic end that he met with in the thick jungles.
Flanked by several senior Congress leaders, including some ministers, and the MLA couple, Mrs Sobha Nagi Reddy and her husband Mr Bhuma Nagi Reddy, of the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) from Kurnool, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy said that his father desired to the linking of the rivers of the Godavari and the Krishna in order to bring every acre of the parched land under irrigation. “We have to achieve this goal,” Mr Jagan said.
With true mannerisms of Dr Rajasekhara Reddy and waving to the crowd similar to his late father, Mr Jagan toughed the emotional chord of every person that attended the condolence meeting. In his brief speech that lasted only for mere 15 minutes, Mr Jagan mentioned his father’s name for almost every minute and has sent a powerful message to the public that he treats the whole State as his family. “My father has given me a very big family. I will stand by you,” he said.
After paying obeisance to his father at Idupulapaya Estate, Kadapa that was very close to the heart of the late Dr Rajasekhara Reddy and where he was buried, Mr Jagan took off to Nalla Kaluva by a copter in the morning. He drove for a few km from the helipad and later trekked to the crash site on the Pavurala Gutta where all-religious prayers were performed. As the area is extremist stronghold, heavy police deployment has been made as about 5,000 eagle-eyed armed men kept a close watch on Mr Jagan’s security.
Coming back to Nalla Kaluva, he was received with thunderous applause by the crowd that assembled there for the condolence meeting. As a grieved Jagan was waving to the crowd raising his left hand up in the air, it was as through Dr Rajasekhara Reddy came alive and such are the mannerisms that Jagan has inherited.
Even he began his address greeting the gathering as “Akklara, Chellelara” (My elder sisters and younger sisters) the crowd responded warmly to his greetings. “I am so grateful to all of you for having remained with me and for treating me as a member of your family during this 22-day-long trying time. My father and our beloved leader did not die and he is still alive in the smiles that you sport on your faces. We all should come together to realise his dreams and achieve his goals,” he said.
He said that whenever he remembers Pavurala Gutta his father’s memories are flashing in his mind. “I feel that, had the travel by the helicopter on that fateful day been postponed, this tragedy would not have occurred. Drawing a clear road map for himself, Mr Jagan said that the Rajiv Arogya Sri scheme under which people living below poverty line can get treatment in corporate hospitals, would have to be continued and every acre in the State should come under irrigation.
Students should continue to pursue their higher studies with no fee payment and every woman should become a lakhier, he said. Here he meant that the fee reimbursement for the students and the subsidised interest rate on loans for women will continue. Even when he said that his father is alive in every heart in the State, the crowd cheered him with heartily.
What is significant in the meeting is that the legislator couple from Kurnool and the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) leaders were present throughout and welcomed Mr Jagan on his arrival from Idupulapaya.