Former minister and senior Congress leader P Shankar Rao continues to embarrass the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in the state with his peculiar demands and controversial statements.

Shankar Rao, who was sacked from the cabinet for attacking the Chief Minister, on Saturday demanded that the Congress government in the state should officially conduct the birth anniversary of late Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on July 8. He reminded that YSR was a staunch Congress leader till his last breath and that he had sacrificed his life for the party. His schemes had brought a lot of goodwill for the party as well as the government and had become popular.

“His birthday should be celebrated not only on behalf of the government, but also the party,” he demanded.

Shankar Rao’s demand will definitely be an embarrassment to Kiran, as he had not taken any decision on the YSR birth anniversary so far. The government and the party had observed the YSR birth anniversary in 2010 and 2011, but this time they are silent because the CBI had included his name in the illegal assets case of his son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and the party leadership is not willing to own up his name in the coming years. At the same time, it cannot ignore the popularity of YSR, but any celebration would only get political mileage to Jagan!