Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

‘Congress sacrificing Telugu pride’

— Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

Staving off hurdles: Actor N. Balakrishna and other TDP leaders ducking to avoid the roots of a banyan tree while travelling in Satyavedu constituency of Chittoor district on Monday.

TIRUPATI: After a brief recess, Nandamuri Balakrishna on Monday hit the roads once again -- this time in the border towns of Sathyavedu, Nagari and Puttur – which have a sizeable Tamil population.

Entering Sathyavedu from across the Tamil Nadu border for his three-day road-show, Mr. Balakrishna covered nearly a dozen destinations spread over four constituencies -- S.Vedu, Nagari, part of Srikalahasti and Tirupati Assembly constituencies.

Perched on his open-top vehicle, Mr. Balakrishna, donning a ‘yellow shirt’, waved to the crowd which welcomed him by throwing flower petals at him. Other TDP leaders onboard his ‘Prachara Ratham’ were Nagari candidate Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu, his Sathyavedu counterpart, Hemalatha, Chandrababu Naidu’s younger brother Nara Ramamurthy Naidu and TDP candidate for Chittoor Lok Sabha seat K. Sivaprasad.

Addressing the voters en route, Mr. Balakrishna lashed at the Rajasekhara Reddy’s government for sacrificing the ‘Telugu pride’ at the altar of the Congress bosses in Delhi. Paying homage to late N.T. Rama Rao, he said the TDP founder had not only refurbished the Telugus’ image and self-esteem but also ensured social justice to the deprived sections for the first time in the political history of Andhra Pradesh. This was an oblique reference to the PR leader K. Chiranjeevi who was trying to claim the patent right on the issue of social justice.

‘Balayya’ in the third phase of his road-show in the run-up to the elections, has definitely pepped up his speech and sharpened his satire against the Congress by lacing it with pun. He said the Congress leaders were back to their ‘disgusting game’ of chanting ‘Indira-Rajiv Manthra’ and sharing the ‘loot’ with their Delhi bosses.

At the weaver-dominated Pudupet village near Nagari, Mr. Balakrishna refrained from unveiling the statue of N.T. Rama Rao as the local Congress leaders raised objections on the ground of ‘code violation’.

The tiny border village already has statues of Indira, Rajiv, Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Kamaraj. Following objections, Mr. Balakrishna merely went round the NTR’s statue and offered pranams and steered clear of controversy.

Another interesting sidelight at the road show was that a former Minister in the M.G. Ramachandran’s Cabinet, Vijayasarathi, joined the Telugu Desam Party in the presence of Mr. Balakrishna at Sathyavedu.

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