Jagan comes down one step, meets dissidents

Chief Minister and ruling YSR Congress president, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to have taken one step down and held talks with the dissident leaders. As some of the leaders who aspired to get the cabinet berth are holding protests the chief minister broke his silence and invited them for a talk with him at his Tadepalli camp office.

On Tuesday, former minister K Partha Saradhi, MLAs Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy and Samineni Udaya Bhanu met the chief minister separately. He is understood to have explained his difficulty in composing the cabinet giving due representation to BCs, SCs and other castes.

The three MLAs are silent, but their supporters have been holding protests for the past 24 hours. The supporters of Udaya Bhanu and Ramakrishna Reddy have even blocked the roads and asked their leaders to come out of the party. However, Partha Saradhi and his supporters did not make any protest but Saradhi had communicated his feelings to the chief minister.

Former minister and Rajya Sabha member Mopidevi Venkata Ramana took the initiative and held consultations with these three leaders. He later took them all to the chief minister at Tadepalli. Venkata Ramana also held talks with former home minister Mekathoti Sucharitha who had threatened to quit the party in protest. However, she did not come to Tadepalli to meet the chief minister.

On Monday, the chief minister met former minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy from Prakasam district, who was dropped from the cabinet. Srinivasa Reddy had a brief chat with the chief minister where he reportedly expressed his displeasure over retaining 11 ministers from the previous cabinet ignoring him.

However, coming out from the meeting with the chief minister, the former minister said that he would work with the new cabinet. Balineni Srinivasa Reddy is having some issues with Minister Adimulapu Suresh who was retained in the new cabinet. The chief minister is understood to have settled the issues between the two leaders and had asked them to work for the party.