YS Jaganmohan Reddy, with all his idiosyncratic politics and prima-donna behaviour within and outside the Assembly, indeed has been the cynosure of all eyes.
In Andhra Pradesh political history, Jagan certainly has his undeniable place and role.
Jagan isn’t naive. He knew he would have to face cases, if he defied Sonia Gandhi. He, for sure, has been aware of its consequences.
Nothing that had happened so far in his chequered, thought not long, political career was a surprise to him.
What came as a rude shock to him was his party’s defeat in the 2014 Assembly elections. He had pinned high hopes on the outcome to be in his favour and wash him off all the evils that haunted him.
While the saner world was generally feeling the popular pulse, the impudent leader couldn’t foresee what was coming. He was wrongly informed by his cronies. He precisely knows how to pick wrong people to surround him.
Jagan had the temerity to field several of his co-accused in the elections. But, little did he know that fielding of a lot of those from among A1 to A10 in the electoral fray would not be taken kindly by the electors. He did not care for speaking about “foisting of cases” and his imprisonment and gave a damn to the idea of doing some explaining to the people towards the end of every public meeting.
He always treated milling crowds as voters, the same mistake Chiranjeevi did in 2009.
Even after losing elections and facing a myriad humiliations at the hands of the ruling party and the numerous bearers of its palanquin, he doesn’t have his ear to the ground.
He surely Isn’t like the progeny of any other Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh who had served earlier. He inherited the bravado from his dad. He is different. He is ambitious and popular.
Jaganmohan Reddy just doesn’t listen to anyone is a charge he faces not only from his bitterest critics, but even his hardcore supporters.
Passing judgements either on Chandrababu Naidu or on Jagan or for that matter on politicians in high positions is our right. That whether we would be able to do better than them all if caught in such a situation is a different story.
Whether Kaul & Shakdar allowed Jagan speak on the floor of the House without having to sign the no-confidence motion notices is not a case in point. The TDP machinery proved that it did not have anything new to throw stones on Jagan, while he had a lot of ammunition to attack the Government. All that he spoke may not have been right. Some things he may have said for garnering political mileage and some utterances may have come by dint of immaturity.
The Chief Minister repeatedly asked Jagan to prove his charges against two Cabinet ministers and until then the proceedings of the House should not be taken forward was a lot unbecoming of Naidu’s experience.
Probe and punishment are the domains of different agencies. The Government could have ordered an investigation into the charges to prove its probity. On the other hand, it had rejected the demand outright.
What the Government did not expect was the no-confidence motion against the Speaker the next day of the no-trust move on it. This was a master stroke by the Opposition. They let the government exhaust its ammunition in the no-confidence motion against itself and lobbed the actual bombshells during the no-confidence motion against the speaker.
Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, with his political stature, could have avoided this as it would remain a smudge on his stint as the Speaker. He had rubbed the Opposition on the wrong side by giving in to the treasury benches too much of an allowance. Whether he was procedurally right or not is a different story.
Jagan could have his men put across their points against Dr Rao by ensuring that he isn’t in the chair and “embarrassed” him to give an explanatory speech on the floor of the House in which he is the supreme authority.
So, love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Jagan. He is a force to reckon with.
