Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and YSR Congress party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy continues to accord highest priority for his own community while assigning roles and responsibilities of his party affairs in key posts. Of late, Jagan has been facing a lot of aversion from his own party supporters for giving undue attention to Reddys in all aspects while in power as they feel that his over reliance on that particular community ultimately led to his downfall in the recent elections.
Despite widespread criticism from his opponents over his biased treatment to Reddys and ignoring other social classes while giving nominated berths and many significant positions during his five year tenure as Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy didn’t give a damn and went ahead with his decisions. From advisors to ministerial posts to bureaucrats to many other prominent positions in the party and the government were held by Reddys in the last five years. There is no exaggeration in saying that Reddys controlled the party and the government without any doubt.
However, the election results in 2024 revealed that voters from the ‘Reddy’ community from the strongholds of Rayalaseema region distanced from YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as his party suffered a humiliating defeat there. There might several other reasons why Reddys ditched YSRCP in these elections, but Jagan continues to pamper the community with his trust and reliance on leaders from that community.
Even after facing an embarrassing defeat in the assembly elections and also after losing a sizeable amount of vote share from his own community, Jagan appears to be continuing the same formula again. That is to assign big responsibilities towards leaders from Reddy community again and again.
Recently, Jagan finalised regional coordinators for different constituencies across the state. Five out of the six coordinators are from the Reddy community. Trusted lieutenants like Vijay Sai Reddy, YV Subba Reddy, Peddireddy Rama Chandra Reddy, Mithun Reddy and Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy have been entrusted with several districts to look after the party affairs and other aspects. Botsa Satyanarayana from Uttarandhra is the only non-Reddy leader in the list.
In the past, many of Jagan’s decisions were influenced by many Reddys who held massive clout when YSR Congress party ruled the state. Key advisors like Sajjala Rama Krishna Reddy faced the wrath of the supporters for misguiding Jagan in many aspects. After the disappointing election results, the cadre demanded expulsion of all such leaders. But, Jagan seems to be trusting them too much.