HYDERABAD: A day of hectic political jockeying on Wednesday began with the resignation of K Rosaiah as the Andhra Pradesh chief minister and ended late at night with the announcement that one-time Ranji Trophy player and four-term MLA, Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, will be his successor.
Kiran was picked by a team of central observers led by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who flew in for the Congress legislature party meeting that began around 7:30pm here. Before the CM's announcement came, the CLP meeting had issued a one-line resolution authorizing the party president to name the 76-year-old Rosaiah's successor.
Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy (50), a four-term MLA from Chittoor, who has never been a minister, will be sworn in as the CM on Thursday. So, how did Kiran earn a name for himself in the top echelons of the Congress? It's learnt Kiran's closeness with Union home minister P Chidambaram was what clinched the deal in his favour. "Since the time of his late father Amarnath Reddy's time, Nallari family has been close to Chidambaram," a source said.
Kiran got Chidambaram to Valmikipuram in his Pileru constituency to inaugurate a housing project last year, where the home minister stirred a hornet's nest by saying that only "disciplined soldiers" of the party would be rewarded by the high command. Apart from being a veiled reference to Jaganmohan Reddy's indiscipline, it was an indication that Kiran Reddy was a frontrunner.
The outgoing CM Rosaiah had cited health reasons while resigning, but it's learnt that he was asked to leave to blunt the anger of Jaganmohan Reddy, whose Sakshi TV channel had criticised Congress president Sonia Gandhi's leadership.
What angered Jagan, and which the high command, too, took a dim view of, was Rosaiah's attempt to consolidate anti-Reddy forces, especially the Kammas. "The Reddys are the backbone of the Congress in Andhra. The high command was miffed with Rosaiah's attempt at social re-engineering with the CM getting closer to Kammas who dominate the TDP," said one senior leader. "This could have driven the Reddys into the arms of Jagan," he added.
"The Congress high command concluded that Jagan's belligerence could be blunted by removing Rosaiah as CM and he would end his campaign against Sonia," an AICC source said. The high command was also upset that Rosaiah could not control Rajasekhara Reddy's political advisor K V P Ramachandra Rao without 10, Janpath's sanction.
Accordingly, soon after Sakshi TV aired its anti-Sonia feature 'Hastagatam' on Friday night and Saturday morning, the high command decided it was time to bid Rosaiah goodbye.
Before dashing to Delhi on Tuesday, Rosaiah was told by the high command to give all the information about Jagan's campaign against Sonia to AK Antony, chairman of the AICC disciplinary committee. He met Antony after arriving in Delhi on Tuesday afternoon and the two were a later joined by Ahmed Patel. Patel then took Rosaiah to 10, Janpath, in his car minus the security and successfully avoided the eyes of the waiting media. It was at this two-minute meeting that Sonia told Rosaiah that the party wanted to relieve him of his responsibilities as CM as per his request made earlier due to failing health and advanced age.
With Rosaiah's departure, it's curtains to perhaps the most lacklustre phase in Andhra's leadership after the death of its charismatic CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a chopper crash in September 2009. Rosaiah, who intended to fade away from politics as the finance minister in the YSR cabinet, will be remembered for inaction, helplessness and rebellion within the party ranks during his 15-month tenure. His resignation must come as a relief to all including most, perhaps, to Rosaiah himself.
Running a government without authority - his cabinet meetings quickly slid into absurdity with absentee ministers and officials - Rosaiah was hit by the twin tides of floods in October 2009 followed by the pro- and anti-Telangana agitations. The befuddled outgoing CM abjectly failed to leave any mark with his emasculated style of functioning.
The agitations left Rosaiah badly bruised and the Centre had to step in with the announcement of the Srikrishna Committee to look into the demand for a separate `T' state that threatened to singe the Andhra success story. But problems kept compounding for Rosaiah with YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy beginning his odarpu (condolence) yatra throughout the state in memory of his father and all the rural folk who killed themselves on hearing the news of YSR's death.
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