Hyderabad/New Delhi, Sep 6 - Amid growing chorus that he be named the next Andhra Pradesh chief minister, in succession to the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Sunday appealed to his shrill followers to wait for party president Sonia Gandhi's decision, after they disrupted a Hyderabad condolence meeting for YSR.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, who looks after the party's Andhra Pradesh affairs, met in New Delhi to discuss the state leadership issue. Sources said the central leadership was upset with the orchestrated demand to make Jaganmohan the chief minister less than three days of YSR's death.
Jaganmohan's supporters earlier in the day did not allow state Congress president D. Srinivas to speak at the party's official condolence meeting for YSR, shouting slogans 'DS, down, down' and forcing him to hastily wind up the meeting in the presence of acting Chief Minister K. Rosaiah.
Holding placards and pictures of YSR and Jagan, they shrilly demanded that Jaganmohan should be handed over the mantle of his father, who was killed in a chopper crash Wednesday.
Security personnel had to escort K. Rosaiah, D. Srinivas, union minister Jaipal Reddy and other senior leaders to safety as Jagan's supporters tried to mob them at the meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan, the state party headquarters.
Jaganmohan, a first-time MP from Kadapa, made the appeal only hours after his followers disrupted the condolence meeting at the party headquarters, and the state leaders called on him and the members of the bereaved YSR family at the chief minister's camp office.
'Like my father, I am duty bound to be a loyal and disciplined Congress worker. We are in mourning with deep heart. As a disciplined soldier of the Congress, it gives pain to the soul of our beloved leader,' said the 37-year-old Jagan on his return from Kadapa after the state funeral of his father.