The YSR Congress Party will come up with a declaration for the Backward Classes after the padayatra and it will implement it without fail after being elected to power, party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said here on Monday.
Mr. Jagan addressed his first meeting in the new State Office of the party that was opened here recently. Addressing party leaders belonging to the Backward Classes (BCs) who were convened to discuss the various issues concerning them, Mr. Jagan said the party would organise a BC Garjana (convention) after the padayatra which he planned to start on November 2. A “BC Declaration” would be made at the convention and the promises made in the declaration would be incorporated in the YSR Congress election manifesto, he said.
Taking it to the logical end, Mr. Jagan said the YSR Congress would ask the people to re-elect it showing that it had implemented the election manifesto. “That is the type of credibility we are trying to establish,” he said.
In the six-month padayatra, the leaders should go to the Assembly constituencies and the villages and tell the BCs and the people how Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had deceived them, he said.
The Telugu Desam promised allocation of ₹10,000 crore for the BC sub-plan implementation every year. The government should have sanctioned ₹40,000 crore in the four budgets for BC welfare, but paltry amounts had been sanctioned till now. While ₹2,057 crore were allocated for 2014-15, just ₹3,195 crore was allocated for 2015-16 and ₹2,573 crore for 2016-17. Though allocation of ₹5,103 crore was announced for this year, only ₹4,300 crore had been sanctioned, Mr. Jagan alleged.
He said the YSR Congress declaration would consist of promises that could be implemented. Mr. Naidu was under the impression that it was sufficient if the BCs were given scissors and irons. He said the BCs had got the help and welfare they required only when his father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was the Chief Minister.
Mr. Jagan charged Mr. Naidu with making false promises to every caste and creed to exploit them during elections.
On arriving at the new office on the M.G. Road near the PWD Grounds, Mr. Jagan interacted with artisans brought there for the BC meeting and tried his hand at a potter’s wheel, weaver’s loom and a blacksmith’s anvil. He also witnessed a “Gangireddula Aata” performance. Former Ministers K Partha Sarathi, Botsa Satyanaryana, Peddireddi Ramakrishna Reddy, MP Vijayasai Reddy, MLA Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao, former MLAs Samineni Udaybhanu, Jogi Ramesh, Vellampalli Srinivas and Malladi Vishnu attended the meeting with Mr. Jagan. After his introductory speech, Mr. Jagan listened to the opinions of the party BC leaders.
