Sajjala Bhargav Reddy, son of YSR Congress party state coordinator Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, who was heading the social media wing of the party till last year, has now been shifted to Sakshi, the media house owned by party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
According to sources, Bhargav has been appointed as the digital media head of Sakshi and has been asked to take care of the digital content of the channel and the newspaper.
In a way, he has been shifted from the political activity to the media activity, in the wake of a series of cases against him.
Bhargav hit the headlines a few months ago for being questioned by the Andhra Pradesh police for posting obscene messages on social media against chief minister N Chandrababau Naidu, deputy CM Pawan Kalyan, minister Nara Lokesh, Hindupur MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna.
Based on a complaint lodged by iTDP leaders, the Mangalagiri police registered a case against him in November 202, under Sections 509, 353, and other applicable provisions of the BNS.
He approached the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail, but his plea was dismissed, allowing police to proceed with interrogation. The court, however, directed the police not to arrest him.
Initial findings indicate that some of the objectionable posts were circulated using fake social media accounts, allegedly created under the direction of local YSRCP leaders and shared by party loyalists.
Bhargav was dropped as the YSRCP social media head after the last year’s elections, as Jagan felt that he had failed to effectively counter the campaign of the TDP and Jana Sena in the elections.
There were also allegations that Bhargav had misused a lot of party funds and engaged other so-called social media influencers at a very high cost to campaign for the YSRCP, but they were not as effective as the political rivals.
Besides, Jagan also reportedly received certain complaints that Bhargav used to ill-treat several social media activists and failed to bring unity among the activists. Because of Bhargav, several people had distanced themselves from social media.
Subsequently, Jagan asked him to look after the social media wing of Sakshi media house and now, he has been its digital media head, sources said, adding that he will now be working directly under the directions of Jagan’s wife Bharati Reddy.