By Girish Nikam

A couple of weeks back when he was in the capital to attend a Congress working committee meeting, he was talking of marginalizing the regional parties and reinforcing hold of the national parties(read Congress). He was not fully satisfied with results of the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in which his party performed better than what most expected. That was Y.S.Rajashekara Reddy. Restless and always setting sight on higher goals.
It was this restlessness in him, and the need to better himself which took him on that fateful flight on Wednesday. He wanted to see for himself the progress in the various schemes for the rural poor he had launched during the last five years and more that he was in power. It was supposed to be a surprise visit. But the surprise was a nasty and fateful one, when his Helicopter crashed getting caught in inclement weather. It was not that he was not aware of the dangers of flying in such weather. Dr.Reddy was a daring and adventurous man, who loved a challenge.
It was this challenge that he had thrown at then reigning Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, during the four years that he was the Opposition leader in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from 1999 that made him undertake the padayatra across the State, in 2003. It was a task which was not for the meek hearted. When he embarked on it, no one thought he would actually carry it off. But he did, walking over a thousand kilometers and more, reaching out to villagers and townspeople single-handedly from Chittoor to Visakapatnam, right across the State, in scorching heat unmindful of the blisters that covered his feet. His party colleagues were weary of this �stunt� ad largely kept away from it. But by the end of the journey, even his detractors both within and outside the party were left speechless and in admiration at his remarkable determination.
A year later, all that hard work and sweat yielded him the result he was dreaming of, when Congress party lead by him marched into office with a huge majority, in the Assembly and an impressive 29 seats in the Lok Sabha. He had taken up the challenge and worsted Naidu, who was left dumbstruck. It was almost a 20 year dream being fulfilled. In 1984, when Indira Gandhi had appointed him the youngest APCC President, at the age of just 35, he had hoped to capture power from NTR, in 1985. That was not to be. Again in 1994, when Congress came to power, he thought it was a formality that he would be appointed, but then Congress chief and Prime Minister, P.V.Narasimha Rao instead chose his close friend, Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy, much to the disappointment of YSR and his friends and family.
However there was no stopping him in 2004, and his most impressive performance, against all odds in 2009, had set him up as the unchallenged leader of the party in the State. During these five years he displayed a ruthless streak while eliminating all his potential rivals within the party, and virtually ending the factionalism which had plagued the party for last several decades. He was accused both by his own partymen and his political rivals of spawning a culture of corruption by using money power to silence his rivals, and in the bargain also filling up his family coffers.
However, Dr.Reddy ensured that as far as poor and the needy were concerned, his Government reached out to them in the most admirable fashion. In fact, one of the States which saw the implementation of the flagship programme of the UPA Government, NREG, without any corruption, was Andhra Pradesh. Many other programmes like the Arogya scheme and welfare programmes for poor and destitute women, also had similar success. His irrigation programmes, which invited criticism for having favoured big contractors close to him, was however a major success on the ground, which impressed people.
No wonder even his worst critics, not a small number even within his own party, grudgingly admitted that � he was the best Chief Minister of Congress ever in Andhra Pradesh�, even while criticizing him for his corruption. One of his biggest achievements was to control Naxal activities, which had plagued the State for the last over 50 years. His combination of ruthless police action, and generous rewards for those who left the naxal fold, apart from development activities in those regions, helped in bringing the State largely out of the naxal hold. In fact, YSR model is being hailed as one other naxal-affected States should follow, by the Centre.
All these achievements in the last five years, and his impressive return to power, had created an aura of invincibility around him and had made him the most powerful Chief Minister of the Congress. In the eyes of the party high command, which refused to intervene despite several complaints against him by his party colleagues, he was its blue-eyed boy. Reddy like many others of his ilk, was grooming his only son, Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy to take over from him. The rude and shocking end to his life, has stopped it, but not before the Younger Reddy made it to the Lok Sabha. The younger one has inherited the charisma of his father. But it may be too early for him to inherit the mantle too. For that he may have to wait a while longer. What is evident at this point is that the vacuum that YSR has left in Andhra politics will not be easy to fill.