The controversy over shifting of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in a police van from Chanchalguda jail to the Nampally court complex on Monday is believed to be a well-planned strategy to get him further sympathy among the voters on the eve of by-elections to 18 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat.

According to a highly placed source in the government, the plan to shift Jagan in an ordinary police van meant for criminals was hatched by none other than Jagan’s campaign managers with his consent and the jail authorities fully cooperated with them.

The jail authorities kept the CBI in the dark about this development, as the investigating agency was no way concerned with the shifting of an under-trial who is in the judicial custody. The local police authorities also had no idea about the mode of transport for shifting him, as they were concerned only with the provision of security to him.

As per the plan, Jagan was brought to the court in the ordinary van and he created the impression to the outside world that the police authorities had humiliated him. And as expected, Jagan’s media house Sakshi played it up extensively as if Jagan was meted out with a big humiliation; and the trick helped generation of huge sympathy for him among the voters on the eve of polling day.

“Jagan was all smiles when he was boarding the bus. The police officials, too, were found laughing and cracking jokes as he was taken in the van. It clearly shows that the cops had cooperated with him in executing the plan to gain sympathy,” the source said.