When YS Jaganmohan Reddy stepped out of his home on Sunday, for the first time since his father's death, he chose to visit the family of Group Captain S K Bhatia who died flying YSR's helicopter. Analysts see this as an indication that Jagan, the politician, had grown beyond being merely a son.

The grooming of YS Jaganmohan Reddy to step into his father's shoes is not an afterthought or a sudden development after Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's death. The foundation of his political career was laid some years ago, though the industrialist and media baron entered active politics only in May his year.

Jagan was undoubtedly being groomed to be his father's successor. Only no one had expected the occasion to arise so soon. Jagan had begun to lay the foundation of his political career three years ago when the Jagan Yuva Senas were floated to mobilise youth in every district of Andhra Pradesh.

"Our Jagan Yuva Sena serves the poor people. It acts as a bridge between the people and the leaders. We also do party work. We even started a blood bank recently," says a worker.

Another adds: "If Jagan is made CM, he will walk in the footsteps of his father. Only he can fulfill his father's promises and dreams."

Jagan's formal entry into politics came when he became the MP from Kadapa on May 16 this year. It was a cakewalk as Kadapa has been the family bastion for over three decades now.

When he became an MP, Jaganmohan Reddy said: "Jagan the politician would now definitely be catering more time to the constituency, catering more time to politics and certainly remote control operations would have to be evolved in business and industry."

Many saw the 36-year-old as identical to his father YSR -- particularly in his body language and style, in the tone and tenor of his speeches. Little surprise then that Congressmen in the state want the son to inherit his father's political legacy as well.