Succession race hots up in AP

Supporters of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy today sought to step up the campaign for making him the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh even as the interim incumbent K Rosaiah ruled out the possibility of any division in the party.         

A day after Rajasekhara Reddy was buried in his home district, Union Law Minister and Congress party in charge of the state M Veerappa Moily said that the party was not not going to apply its mind on the issue of succession.  

In significant remarks, Rosaiah said there was unity in Congress in Andhra Pradesh which stood solidly behind Sonia Gandhi and that was the reason "we were able to get 33 Parliament members elected from this state".   

The Congress high command's reluctance to get into the succession issue did not not deter MLAs, slowly trickling into the city after the burial of YSR's body in Idupulapaya in Kadapa yesterday evening, did not not deter the MLAs from pursuing their campaign.         

MLAs Prasad Raju of Narasapur in West Godavari district, N Seshu Reddy of Anakapalle and Tota Narasimha of Jagampet, both from East Godavari district, reached the Legislature Party office here and told reporters that  Jagan Mohan  "right choice" for the chief minister's post.

37-year-old Jaganmohan, a first-time MP, would easily step  into his father's shoes and fulfil all his unfinished work, the MLAs said. But they beat a hasty retreat to a secret location on seeing a battery of mediapersons.Several of the 154 Congress MLAs are first timers and many more are die-hard supporters of the late Rajasekhara Reddy.      

Congress chief whip Mallu Batti Vikramarka, a die-hard YSR loyalist, is the main mover behind the campaign to make Jaganmohan as the chief minister and was gathering support of legislators and MPs.       

However, the move is not not without opposition and some senior leaders are said to be wanting to caution the high command against the "haste" with which Vikramarka was said to be conducting the campaign.       

Meanwhile, Rosaiah said he was sure there would not not be any groups in the Congress. "I am sure there won't be any division i the party.  There won't be any infighting. But after all we are human beings.  We will be discussing various things amongst us.       

"But all of us, I am sure, will go by the advice given by the Congress high command," he added.       

The interim Chief Minister has also written to Governor N D Tiwari seeking continuation of the ministers of the YSR Cabinet even as he was seeking legal opinion on whether the ministers were required to take the oath of office afresh. 77-year-old Rosaiah, a veteran who had been a minister in successive Congress governments since 1970s, has said he has no no amibition and that he would go by the high command's decision.