Andhra CM Jagan's mother Vijayamma hits out at section of media for targeting family

Vijayamma also named the media outlets, which she said were affiliated to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and were targeting her family.
YS Vijayamma
YS Vijayamma
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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's mother YS Vijaya has hit out at a section of media in an open letter for allegedly targeting their family and "endlessly manufacturing lies over the years", specifically with respect to her brother-in-law YS Vivekananda Reddy's murder. "I am writing this letter after observing that the yellow media has been targeting our family with several statements and criticisms for the past three days. I am writing this as an answer to the people as the wife of YSR (YS Rajasekhara Reddy)," said Vijaya, who is popularly known as Vijayamma, in the five-page open letter.

From the time the former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy died in 2009, Vijayamma said that their family had become a target for some people, and everybody in the state with a basic understanding of politics knew the reasons.

She alleged that whenever it became clear that TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu's strength cannot be revived by the masses, media houses aligned to the TDP such as “Eenadu/ETV, Andhrajyothi/ABN and TV5” started publishing reports and stories against her family.

"Everybody knows that (Jana Sena chief) Pawan Kalyan has also started targeting our family since (the last) seven years," said Vijayamma.

She said that though these media houses were allegedly propagating falsehoods, people never took them into consideration. She added that it was evident from the astounding public response YS Rajasekhara Reddy received and that Jagan Mohan Reddy is now receiving. She also cited how her son triumphed in the recent rural and urban local bodies' polls.

"Because it is impossible to convince people in favour of TDP, Andhrajyothi's Radhakrishna is targeting our family to diminish us with his weekly columns. After seeing his writings, I wonder if it is journalism," she asked.

Referring to YS Vivekananda Reddy's murder, Vijayamma said all her family members, including her daughter Sharmila and son want the truth to emerge in this case. She alleged that the media houses were distorting the comments made by Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Sunita, in an attempt to portray that there was a rift within the family. 

"This murder happened when Chandrababu was the CM in March 2019 and he remained so for another two months. There are suspicions on his minister Adinarayana Reddy regarding this murder, who moved away from the party and is now in BJP," she alleged.

YS Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Sunita Reddy had recently expressed concern over the delay in the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into her father's murder. Claiming that it was a political murder, she recently visited the CBI headquarters in New Delhi to enquire about the delay in the probe by the central agency. 

Later, talking to reporters, she reiterated that she has doubts about some of her family members. She said that though it has been more than two years since the murder, those involved have not been arrested. She also stated that YS Rajasekhara Reddy's daughter YS Sharmila assured her of support.

Sunita also pointed out that she gave the list of people whom she suspects along with the petition filed in the High Court. The names in the list include her cousin and MP Avinash Reddy, and his father YS Bhaskar Reddy, YS Manohar Reddy and former minister Adinarayana Reddy.

(With IANS and PTI inputs)

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