Congress today sought to claim the legacy of late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy with its senior leaders in full attendance at a function to release a pictorial book on him during which they lavished fulsome praise on YSR.
From Motilal Vora to Ghulam Nabi Azad and Digvijay Singh to Vayalar Ravi -- all party general secretaries and senior leaders who had worked with YSR -- were not only present but paid glowing tributes calling him as an "affectionate leader" who was on a "perpetual campaign" always.
"YSR Man of the People", the pictorial book edited by Raghu Rai, D Ravinder Reddy and K Prabhakar, was released by Vora at the function here where the late leader’’s family was represented only by his brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy. All the four leaders spoke at the length about their relationship with the late leader, calling him a "personal friend" and a "loyal Congress leader" whose "heart always beat for poor people".
"I had one of the best stint as General Secretary when I was in-charge for Andhra Pradesh. We had the best and worst of the times. I cannot forget the few hundred meetings if not a few thousand meetings which we addressed in 2003 and 2004 before the Assembly elections," Azad said.
The function came against the backdrop of 27 party MLAs loyal to Jaganmohan Reddy submitting their resignation after YSR was named in an FIR relating to a case against the Kadapa MP. Ravi said, "YSR was always a loyal party worker" and would say he would continue to work for Sonia Gandhi and the Gandhi family. Predictably, none of the leaders even made a mention of Jagan, who claims to inherit the YSR legacy.
