At a time when there have been a series of incidents and political developments rocking Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress Party president and former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is conspicuously absent from action.
Jagan, along with his wife Bharati, is leaving for the UK on vacation on Saturday, leaving the party, its leaders, and its cadre to their fate.
Around the same time, senior leader and party general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy is also leaving for a month-long tour of Europe.
There has been no strong response from the party, even as senior leaders, who were supposed to be close to Jagan, are leaving.
With Jagan himself showing little interest in preventing this exodus, there is a general sense of apathy within the party.
Similarly, there has been no strong counter from the YSRCP to the allegations of harassment of Mumbai actress Kadambari Jethwani by top police officials during Jagan's previous government.
As the actress arrived in Vijayawada and made serious allegations against the previous government, there was no response from the YSRCP, except for a report in Sakshi making wild allegations of a honey trap against Jethwani.
Likewise, when the incident involving girl students from Gudlavalleru Engineering College in Gudivada, who staged a protest against the installation of hidden cameras in the washrooms of the girls' hostel, caused a statewide uproar, the YSRCP leaders, including Jagan, have yet to respond.
The incident caused a lot of embarrassment to the alliance government led by Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Analysts say Jagan should have quickly seized the opportunity to attack the government’s failure to provide security to female students.
However, neither Jagan nor the YSRCP leaders have issued any strong reactions so far. At the very least, Jagan’s sister and Congress president quickly responded and condemned the incident.
