In 2019 general elections, the murder of former minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy was a major political issue which YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy fully exploited, pushing the Telugu Desam Party led by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the defence, as it happened weeks before the elections.
Five years down the line, the issue of Viveka’s murder is back to the fore, this time creating a tricky situation for Jagan, with his own sister Y S Sharmila and cousin sister Dr N Sunitha raising it at the top of their voice and are going to speak about it more and more in the coming days.
Though it is the court of law that will finally decides who is the real culprit and who is the conspirator, the YSRCP chief is aware that the Viveka murder issue is certainly going to help the TDP, if not in Kadapa, but elsewhere in the state.
Naidu is going to talk about it whenever he tries to project Jagan as a villain. He has been raising the issue again and again, quoting the allegations being made by Jagan’s sisters, which have only lent credence to the charges against the YSRCP leaders.
So, Jagan has decided to launch a counter attack on Naidu, saying he was trying to turn his sisters against the YSR family, knowing fully well that who is the real culprit behind the murder.
He is trying to link up the attack from his sisters to the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance, saying they all ganged up against him, who is fighting a lone battle.
"Apart from TDP-JSP-BJP alliance and Congress on the other side, they have also enlisted the support of my two sisters - YS Sharmila and YS Sunita - to fight against one individual, your Chief Minister... What does this entire coalition have to fear from one individual? None of them possess the ability to confront me individually," he said, at the Proddatur rally in Kadapa on Wednesday night.
He said the identity and the mastermind behind the tragic murder of Vivekananda Reddy was known to the public of YSR Kadapa district. Yet, Naidu chose to orchestrate the campaign against him by making his sisters scapegoats in this blame game.
“What's truly alarming is the revelation that the primary culprit, who confessed to the heinous act of killing my uncle Vivekananda Reddy, is not behind bars as justice demands, but rather roaming free, aided and abetted by Chandrababu Naidu and co along with vested media (Yellow Media). Those complicit in this brutal assassination of my uncle and their attempts to tarnish my reputation are deeply troubling," he said.
Though it sounds a very weak defence, Jagan made every effort to project himself as an innocent and his sisters had joined hands with his rivals to defeat him.