All About Andhra Pradesh's Ex Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, Involved In Feud With Sister

Jagan Reddy is the son of the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), two-time former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

At a prayer meeting in the Nalla Kaluva village of Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh on September 25, 2009, a first-time Congress MP, who, until then, was more a businessman and less a politician, addressed a gathering. The condolence meeting was for none other than his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a chopper crash, three months after being re-elected to power.

The man, addressing the people, was YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had a message for the families of people who died by suicide upon hearing about the death of the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. “I am telling all of them the great leader YSR is not dead, he lives inside us through his ideals. I will come and meet every family affected by these deaths and find out about their well-being,” he announced, not far from the site where his father's chopper had crashed.

Over the next fourteen months, what ensued was a bitter battle between the Congress high command in Delhi and Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had just one thing on his mind -- his "word" to the people "who sacrificed their lives for his father." While the senior Congress leadership, particularly then-party president Sonia Gandhi, opposed the Odarpu Yatra (Consolation tour), Jagan had other plans. He was willing to defy the senior leadership and most importantly prepared to seize his father's legacy.