Jagan’s Delhi tour : A litmus test for himself!

The gruesome murder of one Sheikh Rasheed in Vinukonda town of Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh has given a chance for YSRCP president and former CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to grab the headlines after a brief period of political hibernation following the decimation in the recent assembly elections.

While the YSRCP cadre managed to give a political colouring to what appeared like a murder only because of personal vendetta, Jagan made a swift return from his Bengaluru palace and reached Vinukonda to console the bereaved family. Besides launching an offensive on Naidu and his government, Jagan announced that he will take the fight to Delhi and protest against the lawlessness that has been prevailing in the state.

It is crystal clear that Jagan and his supporters are trying to sensationalize the murder and draw attention by blowing it out of proportion. Keeping aside the fact that there won’t be much response from the Prime Minister and the central government given that BJP is a part of the alliance in Andhra Pradesh, Jagan’s Delhi tour will be a litmus test for himself and his party in return.

Jagan announced that he would be staging a Dharna in Delhi as a protest against the ruling government in Andhra Pradesh along with all his MLAs, MPs and MLCs including some of the prominent leaders in his party.

The question now is will Jagan get complete support from all his elected representatives ? After the appalling defeat in the elections in which the YSR Congress party was relegated to 11 MLAs, 32 MLcs, 4 Loksabha MPs and 11 Rajya Sabha MPs, there have been numerous reports that some of these MLAs and MPs are looking to take shelter under the TDP and BJP to continue their business interests and also for their political survival.

Even some of the MLCs from YSRCP are in plans to jump the ship to the TDP after seeing the results.

So, it would be interesting to see if all MLAs, MPs and MLCs rally behind Jagan for this protest and prove that he managed to keep his flock together despite the historic defeat or skip the call given him and create more embarassment for their leader. Moreover, it remains to seen if all those former MLAs and Ministers who went into political oblivion after the elections will come out and support Jagan in this protest or not.