Thursday, September 10, 2009

YSR's son urges followers to stay calm


YSR's son urges followers to stay calm


Hyderabad: YS Jaganmohan Reddy, son of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, on Sunday appealed to his followers to be calm and maintain discipline, and said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi will soon decide on the leadership issue.
He made the appeal hours after his followers disrupted a meeting at party headquarters held to mourn YSR's death, and demanded that the party leadership name Jagan as the new state chief minister. YSR died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.
Jagan's supporters did not allow state Congress President D Srinivas to speak, forcing him to hastily wind up the meeting in the presence of acting Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
Jagan, who is the Kadapa MP, said he was pained at some of his supporters going to the media with their demand to make him YSR's successor.
"We all have a responsibility, as true followers of his legacy, to work towards fulfilling his unfulfilled dream. We cannot afford to lose our heart and become panicky. We have to somehow summon courage and maintain calm and composure, and pay our silent and respectful homage to him," he said in his four-page statement released by the Congress Legislature Party.
While thanking people on behalf of his family for sharing the sorrow, Jagan appealed to them not to lose heart or commit suicide as more than 100 people did after YSR's body was recovered.
"The best way of paying your tribute for the departed soul is by carrying on his mantle and by making sure that all his programmes and ideologies are carried on and completed," he said.
Thanking Gandhi and her family for their support to his late father, Jagan said without their backing it would not have been possible for YSR to scale the heights he had reached.
"We are particularly grateful to Smt. Sonia Gandhi for her immense support and help to my father at all crucial times. She stood like a rock behind my father and supported him wholeheartedly throughout his career," the young MP said.