The sensational allegation made by former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah in Kadapa a couple of days ago that YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had offered Rs 1500 crore to the Congress high command for making him as the chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh in 2009 caused much embarrassment to YSRC.
One does not know how far people believed Abdullah at the public meeting, but his comments gave a lot of boost to the Telugu Desam Party as it knew they would definitely get a lot of prominence in the newspapers the next day, especially in the pro-TDP media.
Since Jagan was a Congress MP in 2009 and was moving with top UPA leaders like Farooq Abdullah those days, there was every possibility that the latter’s words could be believed at least in some sections.
Everybody was aware how Jagan made a desperate bid to succeed his father YSR as the chief minister.
But a small comment by AICC spokesman Dasoju Sravan in a national English daily avoided a lot of embarrassment to Jagan.
Sravan told the daily that though Jagan had made attempts to become the chief minister, there was no authenticity in Farooq Abdulla’s allegations that the YSRC chief had offered Rs 1500 crore to Congress high command for the CM post.
And this became a headline of the report in the daily’s web edition and YSRC social media team did not lose much time in extensively circulating the report in the media circles, stating that the Congress itself has denied Farooq’s allegations.
Even Telugu media web editions had to highlight the report, giving clean chit to Jagan.
YSRC leaders also highlighted the national daily’s quote in their speeches to deny Farooq’s allegations.
On the other hand, YSRC leader Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy announced that the party would file a defamation case against Farooq Abdullah for tarnishing the image of Jagan.
He alleged that Abdullah levelled the charge as per the direction of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
“What does Abdullah know about AP issues? Naidu brought him to Kadapa in a bid to garner Muslim votes. We are sending him a defamation notice for making baseless allegations against our leader Jagan,” the YSRC general secretary said.