According to informed sources, APCC president Botsa Satyanarayana is trying to take advantage of the 26 resignations submitted by MLAs loyal to Jagan Mohan Reddy. The chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is reluctant to face byelections now and Botsa is trying to use this opportunity to consolidate his aim of becoming the next CM.

After announcing that the Congress is in favour of byelections, Botsa had his protege and whip Kondru Murali meet assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar on Friday morning and urge him to accept the resignations of the Jagan loyalist MLAs so that the move would hasten bypolls. Murali also went to the extent of telling the media after the meeting that he had discussed the resignations issue with the Speaker and that the Congress was sure to win all the seats if the bypolls are held. However, Manohar later denied that he had discussed the resignations issue with Murali when the latter called on him and added that his decision on the resignations will not be influenced by political parties or its leaders.

According to sources close to the PCC chief, he is pressing for bypolls so that it can improve his chances of becoming the CM in the near future. If the Congress fares well in the polls, the PCC chief can take the credit while if it does poorly, the blame would be on the chief minister. But either way, it would give an opportunity to Botsa to go to the people along with Chiranjeevi and build his position ahead of assembly elections in 2014 or a snap poll ahead of it.

On the other hand, from the CM's point of view, byelections at this juncture would pose problems for him rather than strengthen his position. "Due to poor revenue collections, the state coffers are empty and because of this the CM is not in a position to announce any pre-election sops. Therefore, delaying the possibility of facing the people now would be in the best interests of Kiran Kumar," said a CM aide.