If anybody thinks YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is still a political novice, he is definitely wrong. Jagan has learnt the tricks of the trade practised by a true politician.
In a rare interview to a financial daily, Jagan said his party would support the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 elections, subject to the condition that the BJP-led NDA government grants special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
He expressed hope that at least after seeing the people’s response to his padayatra, the Centre would grant the special category status.
This is called an improbable condition in politics. Jagan knows fully well that special category status is a closed chapter and the Centre will never consider such a demand. But to keep the issue alive in public, Jagan is raising the issue.
At the same time, he has sent clear signals to the BJP leadership that he is not averse to having a tie-up with the saffron party, if the latter feels so. In fact, he told the newspaper that the BJP needs the support of regional parties and not the vice versa.
Similarly, with regard to attending the assembly sessions, too, Jagan categorically said his party would attend the assembly session provided the Speaker disqualifies all the YSRC MLAs who had defected to the Telugu Desam Party.
Here, too, Jagan knows that the Speaker will not take any decision on disqualifying the defected MLAs nor will he seek any resignations from them.
So, Jagan and his party MLAs would not attend the assembly. But since he needs to give an explanation to the people to avoid the misconception that he is running away from the assembly, he has come out with this condition.
That is politics!
