Jagan holds fresh parleys with legislators, to wait and watch

For now the Jagan group is in a "wait and watch" mode and not eager to make the first move.

Besides former minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, a few MLAs, a couple of MLCs and other leaders were closeted in talks with Jagan at his Sagar Society residence at Banjara Hills here.

The group is anxiously awaiting the constitution of the state Cabinet to assess its standing in the scheme of things in the state Congress.

Jagan group's chief spokesman Ambati Rambabu maintained that they were "hopeful" the Congress high command would not take any decision in violation of the party constitution, implying that Jagan would not be thrown out of the party.

At the same time, Ambati came down heavily on Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy over his remarks that Jagan has been violating the party discipline.

"Jaipal Reddy’s remarks are very unfortunate. Jagan never spoke anything personally against Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh or Rahul Gandhi. Sakshi is an independent media and its commentary should not be attributed to Jagan," he said.

"When he was Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote columns criticising his own government in a newspaper using pseudonyms. Jagan did nothing of that sort and, in fact, is not a coward to speak through his media," Ambati noted.

He reiterated the charge that a conspiracy was being hatched.
Though Ambati and other leaders are unwilling to reveal the group’s future plans, indications are that Jagan may consider splitting the party in case he is shown the door from Congress.

"At least 23 Congress MLAs and around five MLCs are on Jagan's side. Another five MLAs from the Praja Rajyam Party too will throw their lot behind him," a Jagan camper claimed.
The young MP is, however, in no hurry to launch his own political party immediately even if he is thrown out of Congress.

"That will happen only in due course of time in any eventuality," the camper pointed out.