What Did YSC Party Supremo Said on Media?

With a “we told you so” tone, Telugu Desam leaders have pounced on YS Vijayalakshmi’s interview in India Television in which she says her party could support a Congress-led UPA in 2014. Vijayalakshmi is the late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s widow and Jaganmohan Reddy’s mother.

Not that the YSR Congress party’s leaders have not indicated such a position before. They did so before the Presidential elections last year when the YSRC voted in favour of Pranab Mukherjee and Jagan in fact, took permission to come out of jail to travel to the state assembly to cast his vote.

In contrast, Jagan did not even agree to a ‘mulaqat’ with NDA candidate PA Sangma inside Hyderabad’s Chanchalguda central prison. It is well-known in political circles in Andhra Pradesh that YSRC’s reported aversion to ‘communal’ BJP will automatically mean they will end up supporting a Congress-led political arrangement after the general elections.

But the fact that Jagan’s mother, who is also the honorary president of the party, chose to spell it out while talking of her angst over her son being in jail for the last nine months, has set tongues wagging in Hyderabad and Delhi’s political corridors. The politically unwise move is seen as an act of desperation to somehow strike a deal with the ruling party, given the fact that the Congress is equally desperate to somehow ensure a decent harvest of MPs from Andhra Pradesh.

Not that in the interview, Vijayalakshmi is all honey and sugar for the Congress leadership (read Sonia and Rahul Gandhi). In fact, she says, “if Sonia was fair, she would not have harassed Jagan” and that “we don’t think things happen without Rahul Gandhi‘s knowledge”. She also reveals that though the Congress is interested in a merger, her party is not.

But by stating in the same breath that YSRC MPs could join the government and seek ministerial berths in 2014, Vijayalakshmi has exposed her political naivete and given an opportunity to her political rivals to exploit. No wonder, TDP leaders want to know if closer to the elections, YSRC and Congress will be sailing in the same boat.

This has by far been the YSRC biggest failing. It has not succeeded in removing the public perception, particularly in urban pockets, that Jagan is open to striking a behind-the-scenes deal, in exchange for freedom. This is being exploited by the TDP that calls YSRC a mere offshoot of the Congress tree.

The YSRC has tried to blunt the TDP propaganda of a deal between the Congress and YSRC by suggesting that it is the TDP and the Congress who are into match-fixing to ensure Jagan does not get bail. It points to the Presidential election to say it voted for the Congress candidate without getting any favour in return.

The TDP obviously stands to gain if it discredits Jagan as “an opportunistic politician who will go to any extent to protect his wealth, earned through dubious means”. Chandrababu Naidu realises he has lost the opposition space to Jagan and this is his strategy to reclaim it.

The Congress meanwhile, is having fun, hoping to divide the opposition votes between the two and gain in the bargain. Like it is inside the Andhra Pradesh assembly. Ahead of the Budget session, parties like the TRS, YSRC and MIM are pushing the TDP to move a no-confidence motion. Naidu’s reluctance to do so is being exploited by the YSRC to insinuate that he does not want the Kiran Kumar Reddy government to fall, despite the latter having a very slender majority.

The YSR Congress has been putting up a brave face, ensuring some important leader from either the Congress or the Telugu Desam joins it every few days. Sister Sharmila is on a padayatra and trying to strike a chord with the people, by attacking both the Congress and the TDP. But scratch the surface and you would find things are not exactly hunky-dory. The party knows the lack of Jagan on the campaign trail will hurt it. In order to have a headstart, it has announced constituency incharges for 45 assembly seats, indicating they will be the party candidates in 2014.

Realising that the ET interview has only allowed fingers to be pointed at it, YSRC is now in damage control mode, rubbishing Congress hopes of returning to power in Delhi next year. And that they will cross the bridge when they come to it.

But the doubts over who will land up with who after the elections are unlikely to go away in a hurry.