After defying the Congress high command by undertaking a tour of the Telangana region, Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday said he was ready to quit as Kadapa MP if it was proved that he had politicised it even as he insisted on continuing with his “Odarpu Yatra”.
Asked whether he would continue with the tour, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy said it “cannot be stopped” as he was “committed to what I am doing.”
Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, who arrived here on Sunday night, said he had come to meet the Congress leadership to convince it that his yatra was apolitical and that he had full faith in party President Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress said the matter is “under consideration” of the party high command and whatever action is necessary, it will be taken.
Alleging that his opponents had sent an adverse report to the Congress leadership, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy said, “I have sought appointments with the party high command to apprise them of what has happened. I will explain them that I have done nothing wrong.”
The Kadapa MP, who is in the eye of a storm over his tour, said it was his “moral responsibility” to go, meet and console the families of those who had either died or allegedly committed suicide after hearing the news of the death of his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
“It is my duty and moral responsibility. I went to Khammam district some time back and I met 54 families there,” he said while describing himself as a “dutiful” son of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister.
“Never ever I had made a single political statement. You can recall the tapes and if you can prove that even in one meeting in Khammam district in Telangana that I have politicised (the yatra) I am ready to go to any extent even I am ready to resign,” he said.
He said he wanted to meet the party leadership to ask it that he wanted to continue with the tour.
When asked about the issue, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said the “matter is under consideration of the party high command” and “whatever action is required, will be taken by the general secretary in charge” of Andhra Pradesh.
She said there was no timeframe for any action.
To a question, she said the Congress is over 100 years old and it is “not going to be weakened by any individual”.
Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, who is in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, sought to play down the issue, saying “everything is normal.”
