Hyderabad: For the newly appointed Andhra Pradesh Congress President Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, it was hardly an auspicious beginning.The gruesome killing last week of his father Y.S. Raja Reddy, a former sarpanch of their native Pulivendula village in Cuddapah district, and the subsequent violence in which property worth almost Rs 2 crore was destroyed, is likely to intensify faction politics and vengeful killings in the Rayalaseema region."The killers did it with the backing of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu who knew that his TDP had no future in Cuddapah as long as Raja Reddy was alive," argues Congress MLA G.M.K. Naidu, demanding a CBI probe. To be sure, Raja Reddy had an unedifying police record and few dared to stand up to his authoritarian ways. A week before he died, Raja Reddy was arrested for storming a police station to free a supporter detained there. The new Congress chief is known to be mercurial, but given his task of consolidating his party's position in the state besides the family base in Cuddapah the younger Reddy will have his hands full in the coming months..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jun 8, 1998--- ENDS ---
