State News And Discussion - 3

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[url="http://www.telegraphindia.com//1101130/jsp/nation/story_13238955.jsp"]Prince who was brought up like a king[/url]

Already eyebrows were being raised. Sonia scuttled YSR’s plan to get his brother Vivekananda Reddy to resign his Lok Sabha seat in 2005 so that Jagan could enter active politics. The son’s fortunes changed dramatically the moment YSR died in a plane crash 15 months ago.



If Jagan is acutely sensitive about it, Rajasekhar Reddy was no less touchy when it came to his offspring.



Once when the Assembly was debating the Satyam scandal, someone alleged that Ramalinga Raju had sponsored Chandrababu Naidu’s stint at Stanford University. That prompted an Opposition member to snidely mention how Jagan too had been sent to the US for studies but had come back in quick time like “return post”.



“My son came back because of homesickness,” an angry YSR immediately shot back.



The proud father had carefully charted Jagan’s progress since his late teens, initiating him into family businesses even before the boy had earned his BCom. “Even as a matriculate, my son was an income-tax payer,” YSR would boast.



Jagan ran the bauxite mines of Vijayalakshmi Mining Ltd, named after his mother, in Kadapa. Pulivendula and Kadapa shivered when he arrived in his motorcade of Innovas and Qualises, accompanied by 10 to 20 members of his young supporters.



Soon, Jagan became a civil contractor and acquired stakes in several hydel and thermal projects in north India and Karnataka, such as the Saraswati hydel project near Sandur in the southern state.



After YSR became chief minister, Jagan is said to have become a partner in steel, cement and paper factories in Kadapa run by the Reddy brothers of Bellary for a time.



Journalists and politicians close to Jagan spoke of his ambition to become one of India’s top industrialists and his plans to build e-services across rural Andhra. YSR himself was planning to set up a technology and agriculture commission with Jagan as its chairman with cabinet rank.



Jagan’s profile on the Lok Sabha website attributes to him social and cultural activities as well as literary, artistic and scientific accomplishments. It says he had visited Israel, Singapore, Switzerland, Britain and America with his father.



YSR had created what was known as an “executive group” devoted to furthering Jagan’s political career. It included IAS and IPS officers and the ministers for industry, agriculture and home.



After YSR’s death, it took K. Rosaiah almost a year to break this group’s stranglehold on land allotments and on postings in the police and tax departments.