Jagan's actual target is Rahul Gandhi

Desaraju Surya

Hyderabad: His late father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s dream
was to make Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister of India in 2014 but Y S
Jaganmohan Reddy’s aim now is to ensure that the All India Congress
Committee general secretary doesn’t stand that chance.
Dashing Rahul Gandhi’s Prime Ministerial dreams appears to be the
larger agenda behind Jagan’s move to launch a political party next
month, his close followers say.
“Becoming Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is now secondary for Jagan.
His prime target is Rahul Gandhi. The objective is to win considerable
number of Lok Sabha seats in the state and dent the Congress’
aspirations of making Rahul the Prime Minister,” a close confidante of
Jagan said.
In this era of coalition governments, Jagan understands the numbers
game well and is accordingly planning his moves.
Jagan hopes to rally the anti-Congress parties at the national level
and emerge as a potent force so as to dictate terms to the party that
left him “humiliated.”
If claims of his key aides and strategists are to be believed, Jagan
has already “made some friends” notably in Bihar through his “generous
contributions” during the recent Assembly elections in the state. The
ex-Congress MP already has good friends in the “Reddy brothers” (Gali
Janardhan and Karunakar) of Karnataka through whom he hopes to enlarge
his circle in the Bharatiya Janata Party as well.
In Andhra Pradesh, Jagan is reportedly in consultations with some key
leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti for possible support in the
region in future by assuring the separatist leaders that he would
indeed support a separate Telangana state.
This is seen as a tacit move by Jagan to wean the TRS away from the
Congress in any eventuality.
“We are still working on various strategies. We shall start putting
them in practice after the party is formally launched probably around
Sankranti festival,” a close confidante of Jagan said.