Within hours of the attack on the life of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy at Visakhapatnam airport on Thursday afternoon, the Telugu Desam Party and the Andhra Pradesh police have made desperate bid to project that it was a stage-managed attack.
Even as the interrogation of the accused, Janipalli Srinivasa Rao from Mummidivaram, was going on, Director General of Police R P Thakur declared him as a fan of Jagan and that he had resorted to the attack only for publicity sake.
From nowhere, a poster has come into circulation in the social media and also pro-Telugu Desam Party mainstream media showing Srinivas with Jagan on the occasion of New Year Day and Sankranti festivals this year.
Within no time, reporters of these media houses rushed to the residence of the accused to telecast the statement of his brother confirming that he was a big fan of Jagan and YSRC. But he could not say why he had resorted to the attack.
And within no time, TDP ministers Kalva Srinivasulu, Nakka Ananda Babu and N Chinna Rajappa expressed suspicion over the whole incident and wondered whether it was part of the Operation Garuda exposed by cine actor and Naidu fan Sivaji.
“If the police have already come to the conclusion that this is a stage managed attack and the accused is an YSRC fan, what is the point in appointing a special investigation team and enacting a drama that the TDP government is sincere in taking action against the accused? It can straightaway say there is no need for any probe,” a political analyst said.
In any case, it is perhaps for the first time that a political leader is being accused of getting stabbed by his own follower!