Jaganmohan Reddy to meet Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh to seek support for united AP

HYDERABAD: YSR Congress party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy will meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today evening in Lucknow, to garner political support for a united Andhra Pradesh.

Party sources said Jagan is scheduled to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa tomorrow in Chennai for the same reason.

A special CBI court today granted permission to Jagan to go to the UP capital while it yesterday allowed his petition seeking permission to visit Chennai. Accordingly, he will tour both the places starting from today, Jagan's counsel Ashok Reddy told PTI.

Last month, the YSR Congress chief had met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging her party to oppose the Telangana Bill in the Parliament and demanded it be withdrawn.

He had also met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue.

Both the Chief Ministers have reportedly assured their support to the Kadapa MP.

The united Andhra Pradesh campaigner had also met key UPA leader and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and sought his support. He, however, was not given any assurance by the NCP chief.

Though Jagan was granted bail on September 23 in a corruption case against him for which he was lodged in jail since last year, he was not allowed to go out of Hyderabad as a condition set by the court.

However, on October 30, the court allowed his plea for relaxing the bail conditions to enable him to visit different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

Subsequently, as directed by the court, he filed separate petitions seeking permission to visit other parts of the country to mobilise support 'to keep the state undivided'.

Meanwhile, Ashok Reddy said they have filed a 'special vakalat' application in the court seeking exemption of Jagan from appearing personally during future hearings in the cases.

Jagan has been vehemently opposing the Centre's proposal to carve out a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.