Newsmaker: YSR Reddy

Telangana on his mind

Yedaguri Sandinti Rajashekhar Reddy,
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh

After years of trying to wipe out his image as a Congressman leading a small faction of the party in Andhra Pradesh, Yedaguri Sandinti Rajashekhar Reddy (YSR, in popular parlance) achieved his goal yesterday.

As he took over as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, party colleagues of all ages and political orientations had to acknowledge this fact.

Reddy belongs to a highly feudal family from the Rayalaseema district. How powerful his family is can be judged from the fact that his father, YS Raja Reddy was a zamindar from the area and was acknowledged as an arbitrator who would intervene when warlords in the region "" and there were many "" clashed. Raja Reddy was murdered by a rival Reddy gang.

Rajashekhar Reddy studied to become a doctor. He practised for five years and set up his own hospital in the memory of his father in 1977. It was a good move. On the fringes of politics earlier, he became an MLA for the first time in 1978 from Pulivendula.

Because politics in Rayalaseema and Telengana was so feudal, and the leaders, especially Reddy leaders so egoistical, the Congress's base kept growing in this powerful agriculturist class, and at the same time, leaders also kept spawning. One Reddy couldn't stand the other.

The result was a highly factionalised Congress which had to change in two years in the 1980s, six Chief Ministers on the basis of diktat from Delhi.

NT Rama Rao leveraged this to launch the Telugu Desam on the basis of Telugu Atma Gouravam (Telugu pride). This mantle was later taken over by Chandrababu Naidu.

YSR's single most important task was to rid himself of the image of a factional leader. He undertook a fast unto death for 14 days in 1999 on the power tariff hike.

In May 2003, he did a 1500 km padyatra through all the regions of Andhra Pradesh to understand the problems of the people. He met with resistance from Congressmen but this brought him enormous goodwill from Congress cadres. In a sense, he cut through the leadership and communicated straight with the workers.

Today, with the appointment of PCC chief D Srinivas (who belongs to the Munnuru Kapu caste, an influential but numerically small backward Caste) YSR is more or less the unchallenged leader of the party.

The threat to him, if any, comes from S Jaipal Reddy, who is involved in Delhi politics but has a good equation with other disaffected party colleagues who are envious of YSR's rise.

The other leader who could pose a challenge is former Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy, urbane and shrewd but too old to make much of a difference.

YSR's biggest challenge is handling the Telengana issue. The Congress has announced it is for another States Reorganisation Commission. Till that is set up, the leader of the Telengana Rajya Samiti, K Chandrashekhar Rao will have to be kept engaged, possibly with the offer of Deputy Chief Ministership.

As both leaders share a feudal background, this is not something that YSR will like. Not free power, not agricultural subsidy, but getting on with KCR will be YSR's hardest task.