The fan will break into pieces and will be dumped in the dustbin, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) N. Chandrababu Naidu said at a public gathering in Yemmiganur of Kurnool district on Sunday, referring to the YSR Congress Party’s electoral symbol.
Asserting that the defeat of the YSRCP was a foregone conclusion even before the issuance of the election notification, the TDP chief said the massive crowds turning up at his public meetings was an indication of the people’s desire to see the National Democratic Alliance (TDP-BJP-JSP) unseat Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Naidu said a ‘fake letter’ with his forged signature was circulating on social media, claiming that the TDP’s alliance with the BJP was temporary. “It is the handiwork of the YSRCP leaders, who are misusing technology to defame me. I request people not to fall for these false reports. People are fully aware of Mr. Jagan’s misdeeds,” Mr. Naidu said.
Accusing Mr. Jagan of being a “traitor” to Rayalaseema and cancelling 102 irrigation projects in the region, Mr. Naidu said that under the TDP regime, an amount of ₹68,000 crore had been allocated for irrigation projects in the State of which ₹12,000 crore had been allotted for Rayalaseema. However, the YSRCP government had not spent even ₹2,000 crore in the last five years, he alleged.
The TDP chief claimed that people from Kurnool region were being forced to migrate to other places for employment, and said he would come up with measures to check this trend if voted to power. “A mega textile park will be established in Yemmiganur,” Mr. Naidu said.
“If the NDA comes to power, the Kuraba community will be included in the list of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Boyas in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST),” he said.
The TDP chief took a swipe at Mr. Jagan over the latter’s ‘social justice’ outreach as part of his ‘Memantha Siddham’ programmes. “By allocating 49 Assembly seats to his community, Mr. Jagan has no moral right to speak of social justice. It is deplorable that Mr. Jagan had tried to project Butta Renuka, the YSRCP candidate from Yemmiganur in 2014, as a poor woman even though her assets stood at ₹250 crore,” Mr. Naidu alleged.
The TDP president assured that the NDA would focus on the welfare of minorities by reviving all the benefits that were scrapped by the YSRCP government. The meeting was attended by the TDP’s Yemmiganur Assembly candidate Jai Nageswara Reddy, Kurnool MP candidate Panchalingala Nagarju, and TDP and JSP cadres.
