When YSR Congress party led by former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was in power, the party leaders had hardly got any opportunity to meet him and explain the field-level situation to him.
Reason: Jagan was surrounded by a coterie of leaders and officials, besides, of course, the top brass of the Indian Political Action Committee. They would never allow any leader to get access to the boss and let alone have a one-on-one talk.
Leaders like Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, besides additional secretary K Dhananjay Reddy were the only eyes and ears of Jagan. The only other person whom Jagan had trusted as I-PAC chief executive office Rishi Raj Singh.
Now that the YSR Congress party is out of power, the party leaders are openly discussing how this coterie had spoiled the mind of Jagan and misled him with fake narratives on the implementation of welfare schemes, artificial election campaign and attractive slogans.
“These people used to come out with so-called innovative programmes, get huge amounts released in the name of implementing the same and make big money out of them,” a YSRCP leader said.
For instance, the I-PAC came out with highly attractive slogans like: “Why not 175?” and “Siddham,” and brainwashed Jagan stating that these slogans would be game changers for the party.
“They have not allowed the other YSRCP leaders to tell Jagan that “Why Not 175” slogan would backfire, as the ground-level situation is completely different. They got huge money released for these programmes and pocketed a lion’s share,” he said.
He said unfortunately, Jagan was believing only his coterie and other leaders who were closer to him. A YSRCP leader from Rayalaseema managed to get an opportunity to meet Jagan and submit a report to him, explaining how the leaders around him were misleading him.
“But surprisingly, Jagan gave the report to one of the coterie members asking him to look into it. How can the coterie member take action when the complaint itself was against him?” the party leader asked.
