Jagan to seek support for united AP from Akhilesh, Mulayam

YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy will meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday evening in Lucknow, to garner political support for a united Andhra Pradesh.

Party sources said Mr. Reddy is scheduled to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday in Chennai for the same reason.

A special CBI court has granted permission to Mr. Reddy to go to Lucknow and Chennai.

Last month, the YSR Congress chief had met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging her party to oppose the Telangana Bill in the Parliament and demanded it be withdrawn.

He had also met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue.

Both the Chief Ministers have reportedly assured their support to the Kadapa MP.

The united Andhra Pradesh campaigner had also met key UPA leader and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and sought his support. He, however, was not given any assurance by the NCP chief.

Though Mr. Reddy was granted bail on September 23 in a corruption case against him for which he was lodged in jail since last year, he was not allowed to go out of Hyderabad as a condition set by the court.

However, on October 30, the court allowed his plea for relaxing the bail conditions to enable him to visit different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

Subsequently, as directed by the court, he filed separate petitions seeking permission to visit other parts of the country to mobilise support “to keep the state undivided.”

Meanwhile, his counsel Ashok Reddy said they have filed a ‘special vakalat’ application in the court seeking exemption of Mr. Reddy from appearing personally during future hearings in the cases.

Mr. Reddy has been vehemently opposing the Centre’s proposal to carve out a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.