Ever since YSR Congress party led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy lost power to the National Democratic Alliance led by Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu in the recent assembly elections, all the advisors of Jagan have made a quiet exit one after the other.
Except party general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, who was Jagan’s advisor in public affairs, who is a regular appearance at Jagan’s Tadepalli office, all the other advisors are nowhere to be seen.
So is Jagan’s former principal advisor and former chief secretary Ajeya Kallam, who was considered to be the blue-eyed boy of Jagan, at least in the initial days. There was a talk that not a single file would move without Kallam’s approval those days.
After the YSRCP’s electoral debacle, Kallam, too, quit his post and went into an oblivion. However, he is going to appear in an exclusive interview on a digital media on Saturday. The web channel belongs to senior journalist Kandula Ramesh, considered to be a pro-TDP man.
On Thursday, Ramesh released a teaser of Kallam’s interview. Though one cannot exactly make out what he was answering to which question, it was quite evident from some of the bits of the interview that the former advisor to Jagan was critical of the latter.
Kallam said he was not surprised with the defeat of Jagan in the elections.
“It was not completely an unexpected defeat,” he was heard saying, indicating that Jagan was bound to lose the elections, if not with that such huge margin.
At the same time, the former chief secretary appeared philosophical about the election of the TDP-led NDA to power.
“The people have to elect somebody, if they have to reject the existing one. They have no choice, but that doesn’t mean they have high hopes on the new government,” he said.
Kallam also said he had not much role to play as an advisor to Jagan.
“My role was limited. Only when he sought my advice, I would tell him. It was up to him to follow it or not,” he said.
Asked whether he had ever told Jagan that what the latter was doing wrong, Kallam said he used to give hints to that effect.
“But that doesn’t mean he would listen to my words,” he said.
The former chief secretary claimed that Naidu used to like him a lot when he was the chief secretary during the TDP government. Asked whether the arrest of Naidu by the Jagan government in Skill Development Corporation scam contributed to the YSRCP’s debacle in the elections, Kallam was heard saying yes.
Kallam also was seen lashing out at the excise policy of the Jagan government.
“There were several strange liquor brands which were never heard of and they were sold at high rates. This has angered the people,” he explained.
It would be interesting to see what he had said during the interview.
