Cong election for president over, Jagan likely to face the heat

After Sonia Gandhi’s re-election as the party president today, the Congress is likely to take a decision on Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s suspension on disciplinary grounds.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee advised his colleagues to call off a Congress disciplinary committee meeting that was scheduled last week. But, top party sources suggest, the meeting will be re-convened next week and a decision on Reddy, the son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, will be taken.

“Now our entire focus is to complete the process of the party president’s election. Once Sonia Gandhi is re-elected, we will think about other issues, including convening the meeting of the disciplinary committee,” Mukherjee told Business Standard hours before Gandhi got re-elected to the top post. In Andhra Pradesh, notwithstanding the diktat of the party high command, Reddy resumed his controversial yatra in Prakasam.

The Congress has ensured that most of its ministers and MPs maintain a distance with Reddy. Only a few ministers (Congress’ internal assessment says only six) are still with the Reddy scion. One of them, state mines minister and close relative Balineni Srinivasa Reddy stood beside him while Reddy began his yatra at Giddalur in Prakasam district by unveiling a statue of his father, the late YSR.

Meanwhile, heavy rains in Delhi could not dampen the spirits of Congress workers who came to attend Gandhi’s coronation. After formally getting the winner’s certificate from Oscar Fernandes, Gandhi told party colleagues not to forget the “big responsibility” of working for all sections of the society, irrespective of whether the party was in power or not.

Gandhi, 63, was re-elected unopposed and is set to continue for the fourth-time as party president. The ceremony was attended by PM Manmohan Singh and all senior party leaders.