FILE photo: YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy
It isn't just allies who are lining up in Delhi to meet
Narendra Modi, who will take over soon as India's next prime minister.
Today, Jagan Mohan Reddy, the regional powerhouse from Andhra Pradesh, accompanied by his MPs, travelled to Delhi and met Mr Modi. (
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Officially, they say the agenda was to discuss what sort of financial assistance will be extended to Andhra Pradesh by the new government. But privately, sources close to Jagan Mohan say that he also wanted a reassurance that Mr Modi's ally, Chandrababu Naidu, who will take over as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, will not persecute him with corruption cases. (
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A recent post on the Facebook page of Mr Naidu's Telugu Desam Party or TDP, says "It is beyond doubt that he (Jagan Mohan) is going back to jail in 45 days." On Sunday, Mr Naidu said, "The law must take its own course... I don't have a grudge against anybody."
National and state elections were held simultaneously in Andhra Pradesh. On June 2, the state will be formally divided into two states - Telangana will be carved out as India's 29th state, and the two regions of Seemandhra will form the downsized residuary state.
In 2012, Jagan Mohan was arrested and spent 16 months in jail before being granted bail. The CBI says that his father, Congressman YSR Reddy, who died while chief minister in 2009, forced entrepreneurs to invest in Jagan Mohan's vast business empire.
Jagan Mohan has denied the charges, and has blamed the CBI investigation as a weak attempt by the Congress-led government at the Centre to curb his growing influence in Andhra Pradesh.
"Sonia Gandhi did what she wanted... now let TDP do what it wants... I believe in God and destiny," Mr Reddy said recently.
After his father died, Jagan Mohan was marginalised by the Congress, and he then founded his own party, the YSR Congress, named after his father.