Fate forces Vijayamma to turn a warrior

Hyderabad: Before September 2009, if someone had told Y S Vijayamma if she would some day make a speech to a huge gathering, the answer would have been a resounding no. Today, she is preparing to do exactly that.

The widow of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is bracing up for what many believe is the inevitable fallout of the clash between the Congress and its bete noir Jagan Mohan Reddy: arrest of the MP and the need for her to take charge of their party's campaign in the June 12 byelections to 18 constituencies.

With the Central Bureau of Investigation stepping up the heat against Jagan by freezing some of his companies' accounts and arresting industrialists close to him, Jagan has reportedly told disqualified MLAs fighting the byelections that they have nothing to worry.

'Amma will come and campaign for you. You just stand by her in case I am sent to jail.'

A specially designed campaign vehicle, used by Jagan till sometime ago and currently being refurbished, will be ready for Vijayamma.

She is being given talking points by political advisers on various issues that would be raised during the campaign, the central theme being dilution of the welfare programmes implemented by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

For now, Vijayamma's schedule is limited to shuttling between Hyderabad and Pulivendula. Every Sunday night, she would leave for the constituency and stay there until Wednesday, before returning to the capital.

Between Monday-Wednesday, she would meet locals who call on her seeking some help or the other, attend functions, and sends out representations to district officials. She is also making it a point to attend the district development review meetings that happen once a quarter.

Those who are associated with her say she is now able to speak extempore as well.

Throughout her 38 years of married life Vijayamma was content being the typical Indian housewife: taking care of a busy husband and their children and lending a helping hand to relatives in need of assistance.

All that has changed now. She was elected to the Assembly in the wake of her husband's death from his Pulivendula constituency. Tears rolled down her eyes as the then speaker and now chief minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy, administered her the oath in his chambers. The bonhomie did not last long.

A sulking Jagan broke away from the Congress once Kiran Reddy was anointed the chief minister and with him the mother too came out of the party and they resigned their membership of Parliament and Assembly.

Pitted against her own brother-in-law (YSR's brother Vivekananda), she romped home by a margin of over 80,000 votes, something that even YSR could never manage, in the byelection that took place in May 2011. But she said little to the media.

By the time she made her maiden speech in the Assembly in December 2011, the transformation in her was evident. With just a few talking points written down on a piece of paper, she did not do a bad job as she took jibes at the Congress in an emotion-choked voice.

In the interregnum, lawyers close to the family drafted petitions against Naidu and filed them in the High Court and Supreme Court on her behalf.

Early this year, she even shot off a five-page letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which she urged him to direct the CBI to conduct an impartial inquiry on Jagan and not harass businessmen to give evidence against him.

At a time when most people see, rightly or wrongly, that what the Congress is doing to Jagan is nothing but harassment, there can't be anything more melodramatic than a widowed mother standing in front of a huge crowd with a picture of her late husband and seeking votes for the sake of a son who is imprisoned.

Sympathy politics will be on full show sooner than later.