Jagan loyalists fighting under T guise?

HYDERABAD: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is going through a tough time with CBI investigating his assets, appears to be drumming up support from Telangana region albeit in a different way.

As no Telangana leader can openly support Jagan Mohan Reddy, since he is a known integrationist, those who want to help him are doing so under the cover of the Telangana issue. The strategy they are adopting is to attack the Congress government over T.

'If anyone attacks the Congress, it is, in a way, beneficial to us. What they are dong covertly is what we are doing overtly,' a senior YSR Congress leader said. Infrastructure minister Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, who is believed to be a supporter of Jagan, is not losing out on any opportunity to hit out at the government.

Firstly, he is the only minister in the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet who is refusing to resume duties and thus causing embarrassment to the chief minister.

Now, the Nalgonda leader wants to further embarrass the government and has announced that he would go on an indefinite hunger strike for the sake of Telangana with nearly one lakh people in his district. This is being seen as an attempt to weaken the Congress government which Jagan wants anyway.

Apart from this, Venkata Reddy is trying to emerge as a strong leader in his district so that he could be of use to Jagan, should the Kadapa leader seek his support when the crunch comes.

The hunger strike would also help him project himself as the champion of Telangana cause and edge out panchyat raj minister K Jana Reddy and Suryapet MLA R Damodar Reddy and occupy their political space.

Of late, Jana Reddy with his active involvement in the Telangana movement and support from Union minister for petroleum S Jaipal Reddy, is calling all the shots in his district.

Another Telangana leader who came out attacking the Congress for trying to malign the image of late YSR Rajasekhara Reddy was former minister T Jeevan Reddy. He believes that YSR did no wrong when he was chief minister and wanted to know whether others who were in the YSR cabinet have doubt on him

Another leader- Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar - who was a strong supporter of YS Rajasekhara Reddy when the latter was alive, has recently hit out at the Congress for delay the Telangana issue.

Though it is a fact that the delay is making people in Telangana restive, his statement served the twin purpose of endearing himself with people of Telangana and yet continuing the heat on the Congress government to serve Jagan's purpose.

Said one YSR Congress leader: 'More number of leaders would come out openly attacking the Congress but may not express support for Jagan Mohan Reddy overtly for obvious reasons.'