Jagan elected YSRCP legislature party leader

Hyderabad, May 21 (IANS) Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was Wednesday unanimously elected leader of the YSR Congress legislature party.

The newly-elected legislators of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) met at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district and elected the party president as their leader.

Jagan, as the young leader is popularly known, will thus be leader of the opposition in the Andhra Pradesh (Seemandhra) assembly.

The YSRCP bagged 67 seats in the 175-member assembly and also won eight Lok Sabha seats in Seemandhra. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) came to power in the state by winning 102 seats in the assembly.

Addressing the joint meeting of the state legislators and the Lok Sabha members, Jagan vowed to fight for people's problems.

Jagan said the difference between the TDP and the YSRCP was of only five lakh votes, and thanked god for blessing the party with 67 assembly and eight Lok Sabha seats.

Alleging that TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu made false promises to get votes, the YSRCP leader said many people suggested that he should make similar promises but he refused as he was committed to values and credibility.

Jagan said he met Bharatiya Janata Party's prime minister-designate Narendra Modi to seek his support for the newly-created state but his rivals tried to give it political colour.

Stating that he was firm in his determination to fight for the people's cause, Jagan recalled that he was alone when he quit the Congress and started the struggle.

He alleged that many conspiracies were hatched against him and the ruling party used the CBI and sent him to jail to finish the party.

"For four years, we stood by the people. All the 20 MLAs and two MPs remained with us," he said.