HYDERABAD: The last journey of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy began from his house in Begumpet here after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and a host of party leaders paid homage to the departed leader, who died in an air crash on Wednesday.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi also accompanied Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi for YSR's funeral.
The leaders, who flew in from New Delhi, reached the chief minister's camp office in Begumpet and paid their floral tributes to the mortal remains of YSR, as the chief minister was popularly known.
Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi laid wreaths on the body. They consoled YSR's wife Vijayalakshmi, son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, daughter Sharmila and other family members. The leaders, who were accompanied by nearly a dozen central ministers, also wrote their condolence messages in a book.
Andhra Pradesh Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari and central ministers including P Chidambaram, AK Antony, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Praful Patel, Salman Khursheed, Prithvi Raj Chauhan and Veerappa Moily paid their last respects.
Later the body was wrapped in a tri-colour and kept in an open army truck decorated with flowers for taking it to Gandhi Bhavan--State Headquarters of Congress in Nampally here as thousands of mourners chanting Reddy's name followed the vehicle.
Reddy's son Jagan Mohan, Rajya Sabha member and close aide of Reddy, K V P Ramchandra Rao and Congress MP Mohammed Azharuddin were among those who stood near the casket carrying Reddy's body with hundreds of police personnel surrounding the truck.
Thousands of supporters also lined up on both sides of the road to accompany YSR's body to LBS stadium.
State and Central government offices, shops and commercial establishments across Andhra Pradesh remained closed in view of the state mourning announced after Reddy's death in a chopper crash.
The last rites of Reddy will be held with full state honours at his native place Pulivendula at 5 pm today.
Prior to it, his body will be kept in state at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium till about 2 pm, allowing the general public and the political leadership to pay their last homage. It will then be flown to his native village in Cuddapah district for final rites.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday mourned the tragic death of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, describing him as a dynamic leader and role model who worked for the welfare of farmers and weaker sections.
Terming it as a personal loss, the Prime Minister said Reddy was a "role model" and an outstanding leader with a tireless commitment to serve the people.
In his message to Reddy's widow Vijaya Lakshmi, Singh said Reddy worked for the masses, especially the poor and under-privileged, and described him as a "valued colleague on whom I depended for support and ideas".
Praising Reddy as a "natural leader", the Prime Minister said he would be remembered for his unwavering commitment to the development of Andhra Pradesh and his administrative acumen.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi recalled that ahead of the assembly and general elections this year, while the party was concerned about the outcome, Reddy was confident that Congress would return to power.
"Some of us were concerned but throughout Rajasekharaji was firm and he kept telling us : trust me, I know the people of Andhra. I and my colleagues have done tremendous work for the state and we will come back victorious", Gandhi, accompanied by the Prime Minister, told reporters after the Congress Working Committee met to condole Reddy's demise.
Cutting across party lines, chief ministers and political leaders paid glowing tributes to Reddy while many states declared mourning as a mark of respect to the leader killed in a helicopter crash.
Lightning may have hit YSR chopper
HYDERABAD: Though the exact sequence of events leading to the crash of the helicopter carrying Rajasekhara Reddy is not yet fully clear, sources aver that it was a lightning strike that led to the immobilisation of the flight.
Although the lightning did not down the helicopter, it led to the onboard systems including the altimeter going awry. A helicopter flies by looking at the land below but this was not possible because visibility was reduced to zero in the midst of the torrential rains.
With the altimeter having failed, the pilot had no clue where he was flying to. From here on it took probably a few minutes for the low-flying helicopter to stray 18 km from its flight path and hit a cliff in the Nallamala forest about 14 metres below the peak. The helicopter then exploded and broke down into pieces.
The five occupants of the fateful flight were burnt, their bodies charred beyond recognition and their limbs dismembered. In the end, the bodies were identified from their clothes. However, the body of P Subramanyam, the special secretary, was found intact. The crash was 10 km from Rudrakodur in Kurnool district, 40 nautical miles from Kurnool town.
It was not that the top brass of the state did not have a clue to what could have happened. But nobody wanted to believe the worst and say it in so many words.” The weather forecast had warned of heavy rain and formation of Cb clouds (that leads to lightning). The weather report had been sought and obtained by the chief minister's office (CMO). The pilots should have refused to take off. But the presence of the VVIP must have made them tongue-tied,” source said.
The grim details about the violent end of the occupants of the chopper was disclosed here officially on Thursday morning by finance minister and now chief minister K Rosaiah. This was much after home minister had informed the media about YSR's death —based on information from the Andhra Pradesh government. “An IAF helicopter spotted the wreckage of the CM's chopper around 8.30 am,” Rosaiah said. The search helicopter had gone there based on identification of the place that the crash could have taken place. This was based on an SMS message sent to the chief security officer's cellphone, which curiously enough showed a received message confirmation.
So hostile was the terrain that army commandos had to be dropped down (the helicopter could not land) to pick up the bodies. They were able to retrieve three bodies with great difficulty. The fourth body took a little more time and the last heavily charred body took one hour to be located. “By that time, the bodies had also decomposed very quickly due to the adverse weather conditions,” Rosaiah said.
The bodies were taken to Kurnool for post-mortem. Kurnool Medical College senior professor M Malakondiah, who supervised the post-mortem on the five bodies, said YSR's head was crushed beyond recognition. After the post-mortem in Kurnool, the bodies were flown to Hyderabad and handed over to the respective families.
Delhi yet to decide, state Cong chorus loud & clear: Son as CM
Hyderabad/New Delhi: The Congress high command on Thursday night deferred the potentially fractious exercise to choose late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's successor as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister but its unit in the state came out in a groundswell of support for his son Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy as the next CM.
While a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party is scheduled to elect his successor only after the seven-day mourning period, the state Cabinet passed a resolution today urging the central leadership to name YRS’s son the next CM.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Danam Nagender said 118 MLAs — of the 156 — have signed a letter with that demand. Small Scale Industries Minister D K Aruna said that when Rajiv Gandhi could be made Prime Minister after the death of Indira Gandhi, “why not Jagan Mohan after YSR?” These MLAs plan to submit their petition to Congress President Sonia Gandhi who along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to arrive in Hyderabad tomorrow.
Among the thousands gathered at Begumpet Airport and outside the CM’s residence right through the day today, there were several holding placards reading “We want Y S Jagan as CM.” A group of at least 12 MPs, led by Vundavalli Arun Kumar, MP from Rajahmundry, gathered in the Lake View Government Guest House even as the CM’s body was being airlifted to Hyderabad from Kurnool.
The MPs called up several MLAs to seek their opinion and by evening, just before the bodies arrived, their demand was official: Jaganmohan Reddy should be the next Chief Minister. This despite the fact that Finance Minister K Rosaiah took oath as interim Chief Minister.
Heli-pilot speaks up: VIPs, please let us fly
Srinagar/New Delhi:The mishap that killed Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others happened in conditions seen in 60 per cent of all fatal helicopter crashes in India. Of the 35 civilian helicopter accidents in India between 1990 and 2009, not including the one on Wednesday morning, 12 were fatal; and in seven of these, poor visibility and bad weather — technically referred to as the loss of visual reference in flight — were to blame.
YSR’s chopper took off in rain, and headed in the direction of bad weather. While it is still not known under what circumstances the decision to fly was made, helicopter pilots and civil aviation experts say pilots are often under pressure to operate under conditions whose risks their bosses or clients do not fully comprehend.
“VIPs tend to ignore aviation rules while flying and mostly overrule pilots’ warnings,” a veteran pilot and civil aviation expert told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.
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“Most fatal accidents have happened because of ignoring weather conditions and delaying decision-making (on either attempting an emergency landing or returning to the point of departure) by those flying the aircraft,” said retired Air Vice Marshal K Sridharan, founder and president of Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI), a New Delhi-based non-profit organisation that keeps detailed data on helicopter accidents.
Wing Commander (retd) S Katoch, Chief Pilot and Director, Civil Aviation Department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, said civilian aircraft on private flights would continue to be at risk of fatal accidents until state governments standardize their civil aviation departments, free them from non-technical bureaucratic cobwebs, and ensure that politicians do not directly or indirectly pressure pilots to fly in marginal weather or when the airworthiness of the aircraft is not beyond doubt.
YSR death triggers ugly CM race
HYDERABAD: The body of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is yet to be laid to rest, but mourning in Hyderabad has given way to ugly power politics with the deceased chief minister's loyalists on Thursday unleashing a strident campaign for making his son Jaganmohan Reddy the new chief minister.
The campaign — quite unprecedented for the vulgar haste with which it has been mounted — reached a crescendo by evening when K Rosaiah was sworn in as interim CM. The erstwhile YSR cabinet in the presence of new CM Rosaiah passed a resolution on Thursday evening demanding that Jagan -- just 100 days into formal politics -- be made the new CM.
"Jagan knew the mind of Rajasekhara Reddy. He alone can finish the unfulfilled agenda of his father," said government chief whip Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka who is marshalling the MLAs in favour of Jagan. Analysts said that more than Jagan it's the lobby that gained from YSR that wants the son to take over the reins of the state, with a view to perpetuate status quo.
Congress sources in Delhi, however, said the high command was taking a dim view of this unseemly strong-arm tactic to push through Jagan as CM. They threw up other names as possible successor: Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy, minister of state for defence Pallam Raju, NTR's daughter and junior Union minister Purandeshwari Devi and acting CM K Rosaiah.
The day of dramatic developments began soon after it became clear that Rajasekhara Reddy had perished in the helicopter crash. Minutes after the bodies were recovered, the "Jagan-as-CM" campaign picked up momentum. Almost all the state ministers, about 22 MPs and several Congress legislators pitched Jagan's case to the media even as hundreds of party workers gathered at the secretariat, CM's camp office, Gandhi Bhavan and various traffic intersections vocally making a similar demand.
By the afternoon, the Jagan group met Union law minister M Veerappa Moily at the Lake View guest house in pursuance of their demand even as many Congress MLAs faxed individual memorandum to the party headquarters in New Delhi in support of Jagan as CM.
By the evening, minutes after K Rosaiah was sworn in as chief minister, the Jagan loyalists met governor N D Tiwari and submitted a list of 122 signatures in support of him being made the chief minister. According to sources, there was even an attempt to pressure the governor to swear in Jagan as acting CM immediately, but that was abandoned as Rosaiah had already been sworn in by the time the loyalists reached Raj Bhavan.
Analysts said that the Jagan camp realised that there would be a power struggle for the CM's post and therefore decided to make the pitch first. An ungainly battle is imminent as there are many other aspirants for the CM's post including Rajya Sabha members V Hanumantha Rao and K Keshava Rao, apart from Jaipal Reddy, Pallam Raju and Purandeshwari Devi.
Jagan, 36, is a first time MP from Kadapa and is merely 100 days old in politics. While Veerappa Moily made it clear that Rosaiah was only an interim CM and that the Congress high command will chose YSR's successor in the next few days, the Jagan votaries seem ready to take on the central leadership on the issue.
Charred bodies in wreckage identified only by clothing
HYDERABAD: After an anxious, dark and stormy night, the first hours of Thursday morning confirmed the worst. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy's helicopter had crashed, killing the 60-year-old Congress leader and four other occupants.
The country's biggest-ever search operation, launched soon after the Bell-430 chopper fell off the radar on Wednesday morning, yielded results about 24 hours later, when an IAF helicopter spotted the mangled wreckage on a hillside in the Nallamala forests. Earlier, reconnaisance aircraft had detected the crash site but rescue and search teams had to wait for the sun to come up and the rain to thin out before trying to spot the wreckage.
Most bodies were charred beyond recognition and their limbs were dismembered. In the end, bodies were identified from pieces of clothing that clung to the burnt skin. However, the body of P Subramanyam, CM's principal secretary, had remained intact.
As the state went into convulsions of grief, soldiers deployed to reach the mangled remains of the copter, which broke and exploded in flames after hitting a hillside 14 metres below its peak, were confronted by hostile and inaccesible terrain.
"An IAF helicopter spotted the wreckage of the CM's chopper around 8.30am," said interim chief minister K Rosiah, confirming YSR's death. An IAF team from Bangalore had gone there after the site was picked based on information gleaned by analysing an SMS message sent to the CM's chief security officer's cellphone. Chief secretary P Ramakanth Reddy said five helicopters and two IAF aircraft started the search operations at 6.25am on Thursday.
"By that time the bodies had also decomposed very quickly due to the adverse weather conditions," Rosiah said.
So hostile was the terrain that Army commandos had to rappel down from helicopters and the bodies had to be airlifted out of the crash site, 10km from the closest village of Rudrakodur and about 55km east of Kurnool.
After studying the terrain for some time, a rescue operation was commissioned led by ASP Vikramjit Duggal. The commandos dropped down from the helicopter tied to ropes and managed to reach the wreckage and the bodies.
The bodies were taken to Kurnool for a post-mortem. Kurnool Medical College senior professor M Malakondiah, who supervised the autopsy, said YSR's head was crushed beyond recognition.
Three bodies near the wreckage were easily retrieved, but the fourth and the fifth ones were difficult to deal with since they were very badly charred, sources said. The last two bodies, one of them being YSR's, took more than an hour to extricate.
YSR keeps his word on 'retirement' at 60
HYDERABAD: A man who said politicians should retire at 60 seemed to have kept his word, in death. It was a stroke of irony that YSR was fated to die just 100 days after he rode to power for a second time in Andhra Pradesh.
He used to advocate that a politician's shelf life should end at 60. For, YSR had entered politics at a relatively young age of 30 and became a minister in the state cabinet. He missed several opportunities to become CM of Andhra Pradesh and that might have prompted him to moot the "retirement at 60'' plan for Congress veterans.
In fact, the partymen also backed his retirement formula as the high command used to "impose'' aging leaders in state politics. "They wanted all the veteran leaders who clung to power to retire and allow their leader (YSR) to take over the reins,'' an analyst said. It didn't happen until 2004 polls when the party high command had no option but to name him as CM, in recognition of his 1,400-km-long padayatra in the mid-summer of 2003.
With the veterans taking a backseat, YSR emerged as the sole leader of the party in the state at 55. He reached the self-imposed retirement age of 60 just after taking over the reins for the second time on May 20, 2009. "Yes, I wanted to retire from active politics at 60. But, it seems my followers are thinking otherwise,'' YSR had said.
Unfortunately, it appears God has granted him a "forcible retirement'' at 60. He was 60 years and two months at the time of his untimely death.
Family Photos Of RajaSekhara Reddy
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