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The late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR, as he was better known), the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, had some quirks. For instance, when he had visitors, especially those from abroad, he liked to be clear on how he was to receive them. Often, he would ask his officers in a series of staccato questions: "Tea or coffee? Flowers (in case the visitors were political leaders)? What is the name of the leader of Opposition? Tell me the name of his party and what it believes in; and the country." And so on.
Once, when the Norwegian Ambassador called on him, his officers told him as Norwegian salmon was famous, the Ambassador would be impressed if he were to mention this. So during a 15-minute meeting, Reddy tried to show his newfound knowledge. "Simon… I like Simon very much…very nice," he gushed.
YSR's son and the heir to his political legacy, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, is vastly different. While in jail, pending trial in several corruption cases, Jaganmohan Reddy thoroughly studied every Assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh. In about a year of his imprisonment, he spent less time on the Lok Sabha constituencies and more on Assembly constituencies; less time on Telangana constituencies and more on Seemandhra ones.
As soon as he was released from jail, he commissioned McKinsey to carry out a thorough study of Seemandhra - what the region had and what it needed. If any politician is ready to become chief minister of Seemandhra, it is Jaganmohan Reddy.
Chandrababu Naidu, chief of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jaganmohan Reddy's rival, matches him stroke for stroke. Superficially, coastal Andhra looks set for a TDP landslide win for a variety of reasons. This includes the fact that the Kamma community, which has played a major role in developing coastal Andhra and later, Hyderabad, with its myriad entrepreneurial and financial skills, is backing Naidu.
But it wasn't for nothing that Sharmila, YSR's daughter and one of the three women who run Jaganmohan Reddy's campaign, asked a crowd of ryots: "Who gave you land?" "YSR," they said together. "Who gave you pension?" Again, the reply was "YSR". The underclass cherishes YSR's legacy. It is this class Jagan has assiduously nurtured, with a mix of populism, emotion and tears.
Many of Andhra Pradesh's financial woes are the result of YSR's determination to do things differently from Chandrababu Naidu. His emphasis on public spending - on dams such as Polavaram, on houses for the poor, on road building - left behind a distraught Finance Minister K Rosaiah. But while contracts were given to entrepreneurs from Hyderabad, YSR never forgot it was the poor who had brought him to power.
Jaganmohan Reddy is every bit as sharp as his father - he sees in a new state the opportunity to create something new. He begins all his election campaigns with a tribute to his father, to set the tone. He then talks about what people and the state have collectively lost and refers to local problems and how these can be resolved.
An official says standing solidly behind him are his mother, Vijayamma, sister Sharmila and wife Bharati -women who could not have crossed the road on their own, but are holding up the traffic today.
YSR was a leader with presence and charisma. His two terms as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh will be remembered for progressive governance, but not for institution-building.
This is something Jaganmohan Reddy wants to set right.
FROM RICHES TO RICHES
* Jaganmohan Reddy was elected from the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh in 2009
* YSR did not want him to join politics, but could not curb his son's ambition
* After his father's death in a helicopter crash in September 2009, Jagan's relations with the Congress got strained over the issue of who will be the CM; Sonia Gandhi denied him the chair
* He quit the party in November 2010 and in February 2011, he took over the YSR Congress, till then a party only on paper
* He contested again in 2011 from Kadapa and won by a sizable margin
* In August 2011, the AP High Court ordered a probe into his assets
* Jagan's declared earnings increased from Rs 9.19 lakh in 2003-04 to Rs 77.40 crore in 2009. He paid advance tax of Rs 84 crore for the first six months of 2010-11, against tax of Rs 6.72 crore for 2009-10. In April, Jagan is reported to have received over Rs 3,000 crore through the sale of his stake in Bharathi Cement Corporation
