Jagan Reddy in jail, his mother Vijaya on campaign trail

Hyderabad: With YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy now specific undertrial number 6093 at the Chanchalguda Jail in Hyderabad, his mother and the widow of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy will take off from where her son left campaigning for the June 12 by-elections to 18 assembly seats.

YS Vijayamma is the party’s honorary chief; she gave up her fast in protest against her son’s arrest yesterday, took over the reins of the party and will start campaigning tomorrow. Jagan was sent to jail by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court yesterday for 14 days. This means that he will be in jail till June 11, a day before polling is held for the 18 Assembly segments and one Lok Sabha seat and so will not be able to campaign.

Jagan’s mother has also written to the Chief Election Commissioner to direct the CBI to release her son in the larger interest of democracy. She has pointed out in her letter that the CBI arrested Jagan Reddy on Sunday, May 27, just 15 days before the by-elections. The YSR Congress suggests that this is “part of a larger conspiracy” to keep him from campaigning for the by-elections. The YSR Congress has fielded candidates in all the constituencies that are up for grabs. Reddy was drawing a powerful response on his tour of areas like Guntur.

“I am writing this letter with great hope that you would kindly intervene (in the matter)… CBI has arrested him (Jagan) on May 27, just 15 days before the by-elections… This is part of a larger conspiracy to deprive his participation in the elections with the sole objective of helping the ruling Congress candidates. They have waited for waited for 270-odd days; they can wait for another 15 days, particularly when there is no possibility whatsoever for tampering with evidence,” Vijayamma said.

Posted on May 29 2012. Filed under States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry