New Delhi: After defying the Congress high
command by undertaking a tour of Telangana region, Y S
Jaganmohan Reddy today said he was ready to quit as Kadapa MP
if it was proved that he had politicised the visit even as
insisted on continuing with the yatra.
Jaganmohan, who arrived here last night, said he had
come to meet the Congress leadership to convince it that his
yatra was apolitical in nature and that he had full faith in
party President Sonia Gandhi.
Congress said the matter is "under consideration" of the
party high command and whatever action is necessary, it will
be taken.
Alleging that his opponents had sent an adverse report
to the Congress leadership, Reddy said, "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 MP, who is in the eye of a storm over his tour, said
it was his "moral responsibility" to go, meet and console the
families of those who had either died or allegedly committed
suicide after hearing the news of the death of his father Y S
Rajasekhara Reddy.
"It is my duty and moral responsibility. I went to
Khammam district some time back and I met 54 families there,"
said the 37-year-old MP while describing himself as a
"dutiful" son of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister.
"Never ever I had 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 that I have
politicised (the yatra) I am ready to go to any extent even I
am ready to resign," he said.
Asked whether he would continue with the tour, Reddy
said it "cannot be stopped" as he was "committed to that level
what I am doing."
He said he wanted to meet the party leadership to ask it
that he wanted to continue with the tour.
When asked about the issue, Congress spokesperson
Jayanti Natarajan said the "matter is under consideration of
the party high command" and "whatever action is required, will
be taken by the General Secretary in charge" of Andhra
Pradesh.
She said there was no timeframe for any action.
To a question, she said the Congress is over 100 years
old and it is "not going to be weakened by any individual".
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, who is in-charge of
Andhra Pradesh, sought to play down the issue, saying
"everything is normal."
Describing Reddy as the "son of a great leader
(Rajshekhara Reddy)", Moily said in Bangalore that the MP will
"always" remain in Congress, dispelling speculation about
split in the party in Andhra Pradesh.
"I have done nothing wrong. I just visited the families
of those who had sacrificed their lives for my father. Is it
wrong? I am undertaking the yatra not as a politician, but as
the son of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy," Jaganmohan Reddy said.
He said the decision to meet those families was not taken
now but in September last year, days after his father died in
a helicopter crash.
"I have full faith in Congress president Sonia Gandhi. I
will explain to the High Command that there is nothing
political in the yatra. This is purely personal," the MP said.
"Don`t create a situation as if there is a standoff
between me and the party," he said.
He is in the eye of a storm ever since he defied the
party high command`s directive and went ahead with his tour of
the sensitive Telangana region on Friday.
A day earlier, Moily had asked him not to go ahead with
the yatra given the situation in the region, but a defiant
Jaganmohan went ahead and was taken into preventive custody.
He was forced to abandon the yatra after violence
erupted in Mahaboobabad town in Warangal district, the hotbed
of the separate state agitation.
Pro-Telangana groups opposed the visit as he is against
bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Jaganmohan had earlier embarrassed the Congress High
Command in December last when he joined TDP members in
Parliament in opposing the creation of Telangana state.
PTI
