VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy left for New Delhi on Monday evening, raising fresh speculations on the possibility of YSRC joining the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. The chief minister is scheduled to meet PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
Speculation has for sometime been rife in YSRC circles about Jagan having been offered one cabinet berth and two berths for junior minister. However, Jagan is believed to have stuck to his demand of getting special category status for Andhra Pradesh to join the NDA. The YSRC supremo had anchored his entire assembly election campaign in 2019 on this one demand.
Both Jagan and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will be attending the meeting of the Apex Council on river disputes in Delhi on Tuesday to resolve their fight over the sharing of the Krishna waters. KCR, however has decided to attend it via video conferencing from Hyderabad. For Jagan, on the other hand, this is his second visit to the national capital in a fortnight. He was in Delhi on September 23 and 24 during which he held two rounds of meetings with Union home minister Amit Shah.
BJP, sources said, wants YSRC to join the NDA as the exits of Shiv Sena earlier this year and the Shiromani Akali Dal last month have brought down the NDA's strength in the Rajya Sabha to 113. UPA's strength remains at 60, while other parties have 70 members.
Sources added that with 28 MPs - 22 in Lok Sabha and six in Rajya Sabha - YSRC could make BJP's life easier in Parliament. The party had voted for farm bills in the just-concluded session.
Jagan's September meeting with Shah was ostensibly over Andhra Pradesh getting financial support from the Centre and fulfilling all promises made during unified Andhra Pradesh's bifurcation in 2014. But it was during this meeting that Shah is believed to have placed a formal request before Jagan to join the NDA.