Treading path of success on a bumpy road, YS Jagan’s YSR Congress completes 12 years

AMARAVATI: “I express my personal gratitude to everyone who was part of my journey in the last 12 years and stood by my side and all those party activists who wore the YSRCP flag on their sleeves and treated it as their soul. I wish and pray that our cherished journey continues like this forever.” This was a part of an emotional message of thanks tweeted by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and President of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) on Sunday on the occasion of his party’s 12th anniversary.

On the threshold of its 13th year, a look back at its short history shows how the party was able to script a remarkable story, having been born out of political upheaval in the aftermath of YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s death. Numerous highs and lows – illegal assets charges, a swarm of CBI cases that continue to haunt till date, 16-month-long incarceration as an under-trial of its leader, a historic padayatra that gave the party its first taste of power and finally, a four-year reign ushering in welfare regime amid a high-voltage pressure from the opposition – mark this journey.

Floated on March 12, 2011, at the YSR memorial in Idupulapaya, YSRCP took its birth, not under the most cherished circumstances. It burst onto the scene in a riposte to the Congress party’s altered standpoint on late YSR and his legacy, besides as a compulsion for YS Jagan to chart his own course in politics. Troubles followed the party and YS Jagan big time from the day of the inception of his party.

As openly threatened in the public domain by dime a dozen Congress party leaders, YS Jagan, a few of his loyalists including V Vijayasai Reddy and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana besides some senior officials of the late YSR regime found themselves caught in an intricately-woven web of disproportionate assets cases, pursued by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

On 27 May 2012, when the Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre, Reddy was arrested by the CBI on embezzlement charges. The Central agency accused YS Jagan for allegedly amassing huge assets through illegal means by using his father's office, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, when he was the chief minister. Named in nearly a dozen chargesheets, the YSRCP chief had to languish in jail as an under-trial for 16-long months as he was consistently denied bail.

In the first election post bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, YSRCP ended up a close second to the TDP-BJP-Jana Sena combine after raising expectations of coming to power. A padayatra undertaken by YS Jagan on November 6, 2017 helped him and his party eventually come to power in 2019.

Since the time he assumed charge as chief minister, YS Jagan has been maintaining cordial relations with the Centre, especially with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while keeping equi-distance with other regional political entities, in a guarded manner to stay out of trouble. In fact, the last four years of his regime will be known for the implementation of his basket of welfare schemes, even during the crippling COVID-19 times, and the opposition acrimony on how he is turning the state bankrupt by investing heavily on populist measures.