Power and Prejudice: A storied political family’s saga written in blood

Andhra CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. (File image)

Long before his cold-blooded murder in 2019, YS Vivekananda Reddy had told a TV channel in 2011: “I consider myself as Lakshmana in the Hindu epic Ramayana to my elder brother YS Rajasekhara Reddy” (YSR, former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh and current CM Jagan Mohan Reddy’s father).

“I used to take whatever coming from my anna (elder brother) as a command and it’s my duty to take care of his domain, which he assiduously built as an invincible fort for more than three decades, as his custodian," he had said. Like Vivekananda, everyone in the whole clan of Yeduguri Sandinti (YS) regarded YSR as an undisputed family head.

CBI’s Conspiracy Bombshell

By the time that Vivekananda had given that interview, YSR had been dead for two years in a chopper crash, and his nephew Jagan had parted ways with the party which his father served for over three decades. Vivekananda chose to sail with the Congress, accepting a ministry in Kiran Kumar Reddy government, over Jagan’s newly floated party: Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress (YSRC).

When Vivekananda served the YSR family with an unflinching loyalty, why would he fall out of favour with that family after YSR’s death? Why would the 68-year old former minister be killed so mercilessly with the alleged involvement of his family members? The arrest of YS Bhaskar Reddy from the YS family in the Vivekananda murder case, brings into focus these questions.

Bhaskar Reddy’s father Chinna Konda Reddy was the then Rayalaseema strongman YS Raja Reddy’s half-brother. Raja Reddy had five children, including the future Andhra CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Vivekananda Reddy. Bhaskar Reddy’s son is Avinash Reddy, the current Lok Sabha MP from Kadapa, which was represented by Vivekananda between 1999 and 2009.

To cut to the present, the CBI has lent a political angle to the Vivekananda murder. In a counter petition filed in the Telangana high court against the bail plea moved by an accused, CBI noted a “larger” conspiracy behind the case. The central agency alleged that Avinash and his father Bhaskar nursed a grudge against the victim as he remained a hurdle for their further rise in politics.

The Reddys Of Kadapa

To understand what could have led to this it is important to rewind backwards two generations. In a classic instance of sibling rivalry, Raja Reddy allegedly operated through his son Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) to ensure that the descendants of his half-brother Chinna Konda Reddy were kept politically marginalised. There is good reason to believe that YSR ensured that his father’s view on this matter ran as a writ in the family till his death. That could be why only YSR, his brother Vivekananda Reddy, wife Vijayamma and son Jagan Mohan Reddy dominated politics in their fiefdom of Kadapa between 1978 and 2014.

But the family of Bhaskar Reddy, son of Chinna Konda Reddy, however saw a turnaround in its political fortunes after Jagan Mohan Reddy succeeded his father. The rise of Bhaskar Reddy’s family is credited to Jagan’s wife, Bharati Reddy. Her mother Suguna is Bhaskar Reddy’s sister. Courtesy this proximity, Bharati Reddy urged her husband to favour Bhaskar Reddy and his son Avinash.

Bharati Reddy’s influence is believed to have earned Avinash Reddy the ticket for the family bastion of Kadapa for two successive terms since 2014. This was purportedly against the wishes of the other members of the direct family of Raja Reddy, who included Jagan’s mother Vijayamma and sister Sharmila Reddy.

Jagan's Family: Split Down The Middle

Jagan and Bharati’s tilt towards Bhaskar Reddy’s family allegedly forced Vijayamma to quit her son’s party, YSR Congress, which she had headed as honorary president since its inception. Jagan’s sister Sharmila, who had undertaken a marathon padayatra in support of her brother Jagan when he was in jail in money-laundering cases, too had got alienated from him. She is now leading her own party in Telangana with Vijayamma helping her out.

The CBI probe claims to have discovered that Vivekananda had firmly asked Jagan to keep Avinash out of politics, keeping in line with the “wish” of his grandfather Raja Reddy. He had also allegedly advised Jagan to prefer either his mother Vijayamma or sister Sharmila for the Kadapa seat over Avinash, the CBI said in its petition. Vivekananda’s pleas fell on deaf ears as Jagan handpicked Avinash for the Kadapa seat for the second time in 2019. Subsequently, Vivekananda Reddy was hacked to death in his own house barely a month before the elections.

The political entry of Bhaskar Reddy’s family, displacing YSR’s brother Vivekananda Reddy, wife and daughter, leading to the widening gulf within the YS family has political repercussions. YSR ensured micro-level constituency management through Vivekananda Reddy when he was consolidating his position at the state and national levels. After Jagan came to the helm, he entrusted this responsibility to Bhaskar Reddy and his son Avinash Reddy. But with the CBI beginning to tighten the noose around the father and the son who became his close aides, Jagan will feel the heat.

The question that remains is whether the spirited legal battle being waged by Vivekananda’s daughter, N Sunitha Reddy, a US-returned medical professional, will bring the masterminds, regardless of their station in life, to justice.

Gali Nagaraja is a senior journalist, formerly associated with The Hindu, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times for over three decades. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.