When Congress MP Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy proposed to extend his ‘vodarpu yatra' to Telangana, he would not have imagined that his visit would trigger a virtual war of words in the TDP and also earn him a lot of support.
The main Opposition appeared a divided house a day after the party's polit bureau member, N. Harikrishna, wrote a strong letter taking exception to his colleague, E. Dayakar Rao's call to obstruct Mr. Jagan's tour, calling it “irresponsible, unconstitutional and undemocratic.”
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On Monday, several leaders defended Mr. Harikrishna while finding fault with Mr. Dayakar Rao. TDP MLC Nannapaneni Rajakumari said Mr. Harikrishna was right as everyone enjoyed the freedom to travel anywhere in the country and speak.
At a time when people were able to travel to Pakistan and a Pakistani cricketer could marry an Indian tennis star, calling for a virtual ban on a political leader's visit was meaning- less. Asked if she thought disciplinary action should be taken against Mr. Rao, she refused to comment.
One of the party spokesmen and MLA, A. Revanth Reddy, was cautious, saying that both Mr. Harikrishna and Mr. Rao were right in their own way. He felt that Mr. Harikrishna was misled and reacted to partial media reports of Mr. Rao's comments. Other party leaders saw the hand of a section of leadership in drafting and issuing the statement of Mr. Harikrishna, the objective being to ward off threats from the TRS to stop TDP leaders' impending tours in Telangana.
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Mr. Rao, however, stuck to his stand saying he was opposing the tour of a person whose father, former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was responsible for turning parts of Telangana, especially Warangal, into a desert by not preventing Maharashtra from constructing 11 barrages upstream Sriramsagar Project (SRSP), the lifeline of the region.
Mr. Rao said Mr. Jagan preferred to console the families of those who “purportedly” died or committed suicide in the aftermath of Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy's death while not doing anything to those who actually sacrificed their lives for the cause of separate Telangana.
He would not react to Mr. Harikrishna's letter but would meet him and explain to him his stand and the political situation in Warangal.