Congress leaders have cried foul over the arrest of Mopidevi Venkata Ramana by the CBI. While some have decried the arrest of a Minister belonging to the weaker sections, a few others pointed out that Mopidevi turned out to be a sacrificial lamb in Jagan’s greedy pursuit of illegal money. Many of them demanded that the CBI should concentrate on who was the ultimate beneficiary of all the irregularities that had occurred during YSR regime.
The Congress Party stance, as articulated by Lagadapati Rajagopal, J D Seelam and Sarvey Satyanarayanaa, appears to have been aimed at blunting Jagan’s criticism that he was being targeted politically by the ruling party as well as the CBI. By expressing unhappiness at the arrest of Mopidevi as ‘unjust’ and painting the Minister as a ‘helpless pawn’ who is paying for the sins of Jagan, the Congress appears to have taken the wind out of YSR Congress Party chief’s sails.
By portraying Mopidevi as an unwitting victim of Jagan’s conspiracy, the ruling party wants to ensure that the sympathy factor does not work for the beleaguered MP anymore. By attacking CBI for the Minister’s arrest, they can project that the agency was acting independently unmindful of the ruling party’s interests.
Meanwhile, the CBI is unlikely to arrest Jagan on Friday when he appears before it in response to the summons. Still, the YSR Congress Party is leaving no stone unturned to take advantage of the impending arrest. The party has asked all its important leaders to gather in Hyderabad Friday to gear up for any eventuality.
