YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy speaks to NDTV after he began his anti-Telangana protest fast
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who began an indefinite fast today to protest against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, amped up his attack considerably against the Congress.(
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"Someone wanted their son to become PM and divided the state," Mr Reddy said referring to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and her son Rahul, who is No. 2 in the party.
The government's decision earlier this week to carve out one of the three regions in Andhra Pradesh as a new state has left the other two parts, jointly referred to as 'Seemandhra', seething with protests. Today was the second day of the strike in the 13 districts in the region.
Mr Reddy and his party, the YSR Congress, draw their support from Seemandhra.
Yesterday, Mr Reddy challenged the Congress to explain why it cannot reverse the decision on Telangana given that just last week it withdrew a contentious executive order designed to protest convicted MPs after Mr Gandhi described it as 'nonsense.'
Mr Reddy's father, YSR Reddy, was a senior Congressman and Chief Minister of the state when he died in a chopper crash in 2009. Mr Reddy exited the party, claiming he had been sidelined by the Congress.
He left jail just 11 days ago after spending more than a year in prison on corruption charges. The case against him is still being investigated.