Narsimha Reddy Edula S. This resulted in the weakening of the Congress's strength in both the assembly and the Lok Sabha, necessitating by-elections.
After the death of the then-incumbent Chief Minister YSR in a helicopter crash in September 2009,[4] his son Jaganmohan Reddy, the incumbent MP from Kadapa, started an Odarpu Yatra (condolence tour) across Andhra Pradesh, supposedly to console the families of those who had committed su***de or died of shock after the death of his father. This was however not supported by the Congress leadership.[5
] Congress President Sonia Gandhi claimed the rising volatile situation in the state regarding the Telangana issue as the main reason for opposing the "Odarpu Yatra". Defying the Congress High Command's order to call off the tour, Jagan went ahead with the first leg of the "Odarpu Yatra" in the West Godavari and Khammam districts from in April 2010.[6]
In between, the Jagan-promoted Sakshi TV news channel and Sakshi newspaper, had been continuously criticizing Konijeti Rosaiah and the Congress leadership at New Delhi. In a special programme on Sakshi TV to mark the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Congress party, a voice-over made remarks on Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the "current state of affairs" in the State, which invited anger and protests from the Congress and increased the gap and friction between Jagan and the Congress.[7] The channel later deleted those remarks in a re-telecast. After accusing the Congress of ill-treating him and creating rifts in his family by luring his uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy (younger brother of YSR) with a state ministerial berth in the aftermath of the death of his father, Jagan and his mother Y. Vijaya Lakshmi resigned from the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly constituencies respectively and also as members of the Congress in November 2010.[8] They took over the leadership of an existing YSR Congress Party in March 2011, which was founded by Shiva Kumar, a Telangana-based advocate and a fan of YSR, in 2009.[1][9] Many Congress leaders loyal to Jagan also quit the Congress and joined the YSR Congress. In the ensuing bi-elections, the party won most of the vacated seats with record breaking majorities, with many of the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (the main opposition) candidates losing their deposits.[10] The party currently[when?] has a strength of 17 members in the 295-member state assembly and 2 members in the Lok Sabha.
