Hyderabad/New Delhi, Sep 11 - The Congress leadership is considering Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for the post of Andhra Pradesh chief minister, said a close aide of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee clarified that a final decision would be taken at 'an appropriate time.'
K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, a long-time friend of Rajasekhara Reddy, told reporters that the central leadership would take a decision on this issue. YSR, as the deceased chief minister was popularly known, was killed in a helicopter crash in Andhra Pradesh's Nallamalla forest Sep 2.
In Delhi, senior Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told women journalists that a decision on YSR's successor would 'be taken at an appropriate time.'
Asked about the chorus for naming YSR's son Jaganmohan Reddy as his successor in the chief minister's post, Mukherjee said it was 'an emotional upsurge after his death'. To further questions, he only said: 'It is not a major issue. It may noy take longer to decide.'
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, meanwhile, said the party would consider the demand of Jaganmohan's supporters provided if it came through a process.
'If at all there is a demand, which is reflective of people's sentiments; as long as it is routed through correct organisational process and brought to the AICC in-charge, then the party will definitely take it into consideration,' he told reporters in Delhi.