Opinion Rise and fall

The chief of YSR Congress, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, is currently fighting battles on two fronts. The enforcement directorate has been diligently tracking his properties: As on June 29, the ED has reportedly attached property worth an estimated Rs 2,524 crore. In the past two years, the strength of his party in the Andhra assembly has come down from 67 to 47, with MLAs leaving YSRC for the Telugu Desam. With another three years left for assembly elections, Jagan faces the daunting task of preventing his party from withering away and losing his riches, in mining, cement, power and print and TV media. The two appear to be linked.

Looking back, Jagan’s fall may have been written into his rise, which was meteoric and rooted in the political economy nurtured by his father and twice chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Y.S Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR). By all accounts, the increase in Jagan’s wealth coincided with YSR’s ascent to power in 2004: If his declared assets amounted to Rs 50 lakh before the 2004 election, that figure rose to Rs 77 crore in 2009 and Rs 365 crore in 2014. At the time of death in a chopper crash, YSR was at the peak of his popularity, achieved with the help of the padayatras he had undertaken when out of power and the large number of populist welfare schemes and programmes he introduced while in office. The politics of personality and patronage that YSR encouraged promoted his cult at the cost of the party. An ambitious Jagan saw himself as the legatee of YSR and the natural claimant to the CM’s office. The odarpu (condolence) yatras he undertook across the state were to claim YSR’s legacy for the family. And, he succeeded.

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Despite the corruption case and the jail term, Jagan continues to be the main opposition in the state. The question, however, is if the YSR charisma will last till the next elections and survive the political cunning of TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu.