YSRC weeding out rebels to strengthen party

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has started a ‘mission reparation’ in the ruling YSR Congress to weed out the rebels and coverts, as he gets the party set for the next assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

He acted tough for the first time by suspending such MLAs to strengthen the party and achieve his aim of winning all the assembly seats under the slogan of ‘Why Not 175’.

Jagan Reddy did not impose any disciplinary action on his 23 MLAs who had changed loyalties to the Telugu Desam while the YSRC was in the opposition. He continued the same policy after coming into power, as in the case of K Raghurama Krishnam Raju MP, who revolted against him.

The chief minister also did not act against nearly 40 legislators who showed poor performances in the party’s recent Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam mass campaign programme.

Now, however, Jagan as president of the YSRC started acting tough, which yielded good results by curtailing rebel activities and defections in the party.

TD leaders have claimed that 40 YSRC MLAs are “dissidents” and are ready to come out of the party.

During the MLA quota MLC elections, TD chief Chandrababu Naidu claimed that 16 ruling party legislators were in touch with TD leadership and would be supporting the TD candidate. However, other than the two past rebels Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, two YSRC legislators voted for TD in the MLC elections. This resulted in the defeat of ruling party candidate Kola Guruvulu.

The YSRC high-command immediately plunged into action and found out who these two were. They were Dr Vundavalli Sridevi and Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy, who broke ranks and voted for TD.

Notably, during Chandrababu Naidu’s government, 23 YSRC MLAs had joined TD. Of them, four became ministers and they severely criticised Jagan. They continued as YSRC MLAs in the assembly as Jagan Reddy did not take any action against them.

Similarly, Jagan did not take disciplinary action against MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju for his revolt. He only complained to the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking action against Raju under the anti-defection law. However, he was not disqualified as an MP. The same ‘no action’ response from Jagan Reddy continued in the context of the internal rebellion by Sridhar Reddy and Ramanarayana Reddy.

Notably, all the rebels including MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju continued claiming themselves to be YSRC MP or MLA without any fear of disciplinary action from the party’s side.

After the present MLC elections, senior party leaders discussed the seriousness of the matter with the CM and he decided to initiate action against the four rebels. Suspension orders were issued by the YSRC immediately.

The speculations of another 20 to 40 MLAs leaving the YSRC were rife due mainly to lack of stern action from the party against such rebels so far. The sudden toughening of Jagan’s stand is also a warning to such ‘Jumping Jacks’.

Analysts say Jagan doesn’t mince words when he interacts with his party leaders, unlike Chandrababu Naidu, who tries to be diplomatic while dealing with his party leaders.

In the last few party meetings, Jagan has been openly expressing his opinions on the performance of the party MLAs and giving them rankings. Jagan had repeatedly cautioned the two dozen poor-performing legislators about chances of them losing party tickets for the next polls. This helped some of them to better their performances. Some weak leaders opted for alternatives and started revolting against the party line, analysts noted.

YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said Jagan even offered alternatives to the leaders who would be unable to get tickets. “Yet these legislators changed sides in lieu of money offered by Chandrababu Naidu.”