 "Jagan returns from airport as Akhilesh cancels meeting")
Jagan had obtained trial court’s permission to visit Lucknow on Tuesday morning only after he had fixed his appointment with the father-son duo.
Later in the evening, Jagan told the media that the Samajwadi Party leaders had postponed the scheduled appointment to December 6 and he was willing to go whenever they gave time.
The reason for the last minute change being given was that they had other engagements, according to him. He did not respond to a query on whether there were some other reasons behind this. However, he came down heavily on Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal's recent verdict on surplus waters.
The proposed meeting was a part of his stated objective of mobilising the opinion against the “arbitrary usage of Article 3” of the Constitution that empowers the Government of India to create new states. Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh have opposed the proposal to divide Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Jagan has already taken permission to visit Chennai on Wednesday to meet Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on the same issue. So far, he had met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray among others.
Jagan, as he is popularly known in AP, is using the opportunity to strike a rapport with national as well as regional leaders as the general elections are a few months away. His party took a U-turn by opposing the state bifurcation in a bid to consolidate the party’s position in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema districts in the coming general elections.
Apart from demanding the Centre to keep Andhra Pradesh united, he is also seeking the constitutional amendments to restrict the powers of the Centre with regard to Article 3.
<b>Seeks exemption from personal appearance in case</b>
The YSR Congress president on Tuesday filed a special petition under section 205 of CrPC before the special CBI court, seeking exemption from personal appearance during the hearings in the quid pro quo investment case in which he is the prime accused. He was released on bail from a local jail on September 24 after spending 16 months in judicial remand.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and India Cements managing director V Srinivasan, who also appeared before the trial court on Tuesday, also filed a petition under section 305 of CrPC seeking permission to send an authorised representative to appear before the court in future.
For the first time, the CBI special court has summoned close to 60 accused named in all the 10 charge sheets in Jagan case. A number of senior IAS officers, former ministers and business personalities, including state industries minister J Geeta Reddy, appeared before the court. The judge posted the next hearing on January 3.