Fact Check: The claim that AP government removed Dr YSR from Navaratnalu logo is partly true

The people living in the state of Andhra Pradesh know 'Navaratnalu' as referred to the flagship welfare schemes of the YSR Congress Party and its president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy designed them. The AP government is using the direct benefit transfer system to transfer the money to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries as per their eligibility under the schemes in Navaratnalu, and its logo can be identified by the public prominently.

Some of the social media users in the state are pointing out that to attract the voters, the YSRCP utilized the Navaratnalu logo, designed with the photo of Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy to cash on the sentiment, and then used the photo of the father and son to gain more votes, but after few months of winning in the assembly elections, the YSRCP government replaced the photo of YSR and YSJ with the chief minister alone.

Fact Check:

When searched for Navaratnalu logo on internet using Google, one can get few types of logos. There is a logo with Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy in the middle, another with the Rajasekhara Reddy and his son Jagan Mohan Reddy, and few more designs with Jagan Mohan Reddy alone.

But, to check the claim by the social media users, we considered the official website of YSR Congress Party, and the websites of Government of Andhra Pradesh only.

The YSR Congress Party website at https://www.ysrcongress.com/ is using the picture of YS Rajasekhara Reddy surrounded by the Navaratnalu at various places, and also on the party's official flag. The YSR Congress has already explained why it designed the party flag like that. The archived link for The Flag can be found here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140110164934/http://www.ysrcongress.com/en/articles/The_Flag.html

Meanwhile, the YSR Congress popularised the logo of Navaratnalu with the photo of the father and son duo, as archieved at https://web.archive.org/web/20201021081812/https://www.ysrcongress.com/navaratnalu-logo-66230, along with another version of the logo with solo photo of Jagan Mohan Reddy, even before the election to the assembly. The Navaratnalu videos page on the party website shows the videos uploaded on official channel on YouTube in February 2019. The web archive link to the Navaratnalu video page is https://web.archive.org/web/20190330110525/https://www.ysrcongress.com/video/navarathnalu

After the elections held on April 11, 2019, the YSRCP formed the government in Andhra Pradesh. The government then started utilizing the father and son duo logo when it is announcing the welfare schemes promised as part of the Navaratnalu. It printed that logo in the publicity materials and also on documents like Pattaddar Pass Books for tribals and on the medals presented to best performing volunteers. But, some of the websites like, the official website of Krishna district is using the Navaratnalu logo with Jagan Mohan Reddy alone. The archived link for Navaratnalu page on Krishna district website is at https://web.archive.org/web/20200922115813/https://krishna.ap.gov.in/scheme/navaratnalu/. The official website of Government of Andhra Pradesh shows another Navaratnalu logo, but of course with the photo Jagan Mohan Reddy alone. The web archive link for the same: https://web.archive.org/web/20191221132432/https://www.ap.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Navaratnalu-English-converted.పిడిఎఫ్

However, majority of the government websites that used YSR-YSJ photo in Navaratnalu started to change the logo with the logo with the photo of Jagan Mohan Reddy alone, for the last few months. This can be observed with an example of Spandana website. The Spandana website archived on October 06, 2021 shows the Navaratnalu logo with YSR and YSJ (Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20211006114946/https://www.spandana.ap.gov.in/), but the same is replaced with the single photo of Jagan Mohan Reddy in the archived version of the same website (Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20211125100906/https://www.spandana.ap.gov.in/) on November 25, 2021.

The https://ap.gov.in is also placed the Navaratnalu logo with Jagan Mohan Reddy in the home page at least from May 2022. The website is working on Wordpress CMS, and the URL of the Navaratnalu Logo explains that it may be uploaded in May 2022. (Link: https://www.ap.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/navaratnalu_logo.jpeg)

By observing all the information available as of now, it may be stated that the YSR Congress Party, its leaders and workers are still using the photo of YS Rajasekhara Reddy surrounded by the Navaratnalu in the party flag, and other materials, posters and documents, along with the other available versions of the Navaratnalu logo with the Father and Son duo, and other versions of the logo with Jagan Mohan Reddy alone.

Some of the websites of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and its departments and ministries used the Navaratnalu logo with YSR and YSJ for some time, and it is being replaced with the logo with Jagan Mohan Reddy alone. So, the claim of some of the social media users that the YSR Congress Party and the Government of Andhra Pradesh started distancing from the former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy by replacing his photo in the 'Navaratnalu' logo with the photo of him and his son, and then replacing it with the single photo of the chief minister, is partly true.

Claim: YSR Congress Party and the Government of Andhra Pradesh started distancing from the former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy by replacing his photo in the 'Navaratnalu' logo with the photo of him and his son, and then replacing it with the single photo of the chief minister.

Claimed by: Social media users

Fact Check: Partly True