The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) State unit on Thursday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission accusing TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu of ‘cheating’ farmers with loan waiver sops in party’s manifesto.
Mr. Naidu’s action amounts to a serious violation of moral code of conduct since the promises made were not only ‘impractical’ but the TDP has also failed to explain the ways and means to meet the financial requirements for it, said Kiran Kumar Vissa, spokesperson, and other leaders at a press conference.
“Current outstanding agriculture loans are estimated to be around Rs. 1.25 lakh crore while those of the Self-Help Groups (SHGs), as on September last year, are around Rs. 22,922 crore. Going by the TDP’s manifesto, the total loans to be waived will be around Rs. 1.5 lakh crore in both Telangana and Seemandhra,” he said.
The AAP members pointed out that the unified State budget was around Rs. 1, 61,000 crore whereas the total allocation for agriculture and allied sectors was only Rs. 5,800 crore. “The TDP has to answer how they plan to implement it. What about loans taken from private banks? It’s nothing but false promises by Mr. Naidu and other leaders of the party to get votes,” said Mr. Kiran.
B. Ramakrishnam Raju, convener, State campaign committee, alleged that this was a legal way of deceiving voters. “It is worse than bribing voters with alcohol, money and other things, hence we decided to approach the EC,” said Mr. Raju.
The party appealed to the EC to intervene and order the TDP to immediately pull out the loan waiver promise from its manifesto and also refrain from using it in their election slogans and speeches.
