Having steered the Congress government with a steady hand for a fortnight, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah’s next step forward will be a visit to New Delhi to thank the AICC leadership for reposing confidence in him and seeking advice on important issues.
“Ours is a national party and we have a strong leadership in New Delhi to guide us,” said Mr. Rosaiah in an interview during which he sported an air of self-confidence in contrast to his low profile in the aftermath of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s death in a helicopter crash on September 2.
With the truant Ministers falling in line and the political turbulence over, Mr. Rosaiah was asked whether he was satisfied with the party high command’s support to him.
“No absenteeism”
“I am not dissatisfied. All the Ministers attended my video conference and there is no absenteeism at review meetings,” he said.
On whether he was in sync with the chorus in the State Congress for anointing Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as Chief Minister, Mr. Rosaiah replied, “As an individual, I feel Jagan is a young and enthusiastic leader. He has inherited certain good qualities from his father. To appoint him as Chief Minister or as something else is, however, the affair of the Congress high command.”
But, did he approve of hereditary politics? “We don’t have to look at it from that angle. The ability to handle issues, loyalty to the party and commitment to work matter above everything else,” he asserted.
Mr. Rosaiah maintained that his self-effacing action in not occupying the Chief Minister’s chamber in the Secretariat was out of deference for Rajasekhara Reddy. Strongly disagreeing with the suggestion that his reluctance conveyed a picture that he was Chief Minister in the interim, he said, “I do not suffer from any feeling of insecurity.”
He justified his resolve to work from the chamber he occupied as Finance Minister.
“It is not important where I sit. I am meeting officers everyday and discharging all duties of a Chief Minister. I have no aversion to occupying the ‘C’ block office but it stirs up memories of YSR as I still visualise him sitting there,” he said.
Yet, he did not seem to foreclose the option of shifting when he pointed out that, apart from the above reasons, the fortnight-long ‘pitra pakshalu’, considered inauspicious, ended only on Friday.
Mr. Rosaiah was quite convinced that the former Chief Minister’s Bell 430 helicopter was in good condition.
