Leader of the Opposition Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy made vitriolic remarks against Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu fearing that the YSR Congress Party would be routed in the Nandyal byelection, Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishnamurthy said on Sunday.
The remarks were a veiled threat to the people that they would face the music if the YSRCP was defeated, he told the media in Kurnool.
As the verdict of the byelection was considered a referendum for the 2019 elections, all political parties were focussing on it, he added.
Factionalism was ingrained in Mr. Jagan’s family, he alleged.
Refuting Mr. Jagan’s assertion, he said the government was according priority to Muslims. The government constituted a SIT to reinvestigate the Ayesha Meera case in which a Dalit youth Satyam Babu was foisted in the case and imprisoned during the Congress rule, he said.
‘Titanic ship’
The MPs and MLAs who were steeped in corruption in the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s rule were sailing with Mr. Jagan in a “Titanic ship” that could sink any time, he said. People of Nandyal would defeat the YSRCP candidate, he added.
Flaying YSRCP leader R.K. Roja for stating that Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya lobbied for a Cabinet berth after her father Bhuma Nagi Reddy’s death, he said Mr. Jagan collected the signatures of MLAs after his father’s death with an eye on the top post.
Kurnool MLA S.V. Mohan Reddy described Mr. Jagan’s remarks against Mr. Naidu as uncultured.
Kodumur MLA Mani Gandhi and district TDP president Somisetty Venkateswarlu were present.
In Hyderabad, Minister Pithani Satyanarayana advised Mr. Jagan to change his attitude in order to win people’s confidence and not indulge in provocative speeches and verbal attack on the ruling party.
“Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy is attempting political suicide by his tirade against the Chief Minister,” he said.
