Senior Congress leader K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao addressing the media in Vijayawada on Friday.
| Photo Credit: K.V.S. GIRI
Former Rajya Sabha member and senior Congress party leader K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao on February 9 (Friday) rebuked Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu “for vying with each other to prostrate before the BJP leadership in Delhi.”
At a press conference here, Mr. Rao said the most unfortunate part of their visits was that they were confined to only “political gains and seat-sharing talks,” reneging on the key issues related to the welfare of the State and its people.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was perhaps the only Chief Minister to have made so many rounds to the national capital, he said. “Under the BJP rule at the Centre, leaders of various parties across the country are arrested for their role in illegal sand mining and liquor scams, but for some strange reason, not a single Minister or MP from Andhra Pradesh has been arrested,” Mr. Rao said, adding, “This may be because the BJP thinks that Andhra Pradesh is the only corruption-free State in the country.”
‘Naidu, a political chameleon’
The Congress veteran slammed Mr. Naidu for “changing colours in quick succession.” “Mr. Naidu can give tough competition to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has earned the reputation of being political chameleon,” he said, recalling the TDP supremo’s political career graph.
In 1996, Mr. Naidu allied with the Communist parties, in 1999, he formed an alliance with the BJP, and ahead of the 2009 elections, he formed a grand alliance comprising the TDP, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the two Communist parties. In 2014, he returned to the BJP and in 2018, the TDP contested the Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress party, Mr. Rao said.
Mr. Rao reminded of the ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’, a day-long fast protest for justice staged by Mr. Naidu in Delhi in support of his demand for Special Status for Andhra Pradesh in 2019, and asked, “What has changed between 2019 and 2014 that Mr. Naidu had to rush back to the BJP seeking its political support?”
“Women’s dignity is at stake under the YSRCP rule, and the Chief Minister has remained silent even when his own sister and mother are subjected to online abuse and character assassination.”K.V.P. Ramachandra RaoVeteran Congress leader
Referring to the Polavaram project, Mr. Rao said he had approached the Telangana High Court demanding that the Centre meet the complete expenditure of the Polavaram project. Mr. Rao said the future generations would not forgive the TDP and the subsequent YSR Congress Party governments for becoming the cause of their woes.
He said women’s dignity was at stake under the YSRCP rule and lambasted the Chief Minister for remaining silent even when his own sister and mother were being subjected to online abuse and character assassination.
Stating that the Congress party alone could bring peace and prosperity back to the State, Mr. Rao urged the people to extend their support to the party in the forthcoming elections.
APCC working president Sk. Mastan Vali was present.