Hyderabad, July 18 (IANS) Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Sunday termed as “painful” the suspension of his close aide Ambati Rambabu from the party.
He told reporters during his ‘Odarpu yatra’ in East Godavari district that he would take up the issue with the party’s central leadership.

Veerappa Moily, Congress general secretary in charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, announced Rambabu’s suspension Saturday night. Rambabu, general secretary of the party’s state unit, has been suspended for making certain remarks against Chief Minister K. Rosaiah.

While criticising the chief minister for asking ministers and legislators not to join Jagan’s yatra, Rambabu had allegedly remarked that Rosaiah should be indebted to late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s family for becoming the chief minister.

“The suspension of Mr.Rambabu has pained me,” said Jagan, who continued his yatra for the seventh day against the wishes of party president Sonia Gandhi.

During the yatra, the Kadapa MP is consoling the families of those who died of shock following his father YSR’s death in a helicopter crash last year.

“What mistake have I committed that they will give a warning to me?” quipped Jagan when a reporter asked if Rambabu’s suspension was a warning signal to those supporting him.

“The blessings of God and my late father are with those who are with me,” he said and recalled that Rambabu had accompanied his father during his 1,500-km long ‘padyatra’ across the state in 2003.

Meanwhile, Rambabu said in Hyderabad that he had not received any communication from party leadership about his suspension. He pointed out that the party allows two weeks time for replying to a show cause notice. The notice on Rambabu was served July 9.

The Congress leadership in Delhi issued a statement Saturday night, announcing Rambabu’s suspension. Jagan loyalists ask how he could be suspended when he still had time to reply.

Moily, who had visited Hyderabad Friday, had ruled out any disciplinary action against Jagan saying ‘Odarpu yatra’ was his personal move.