Forest Minister Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy on Saturday dared YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to resign as MLA and contest the election to know whether people still believed him or not.
The Minister was speaking at the “victory meeting” organised by the Zilla Parishad on completion of two years under the Telugu Desam Party rule.
Mr. Gopalakrishna Reddy said that it was ridiculous on the part of Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy to ask Palamaner MLA N. Amarnatha Reddy to resign and contest as a TDP candidate.
“Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy should tell the people as to why he had been to jail and about the scams he was involved in,” the Minister said.
The Minister observed that while Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was striving to construct the world-class capital, Amaravati, the Leader of the Opposition was creating hurdles and bent upon scuttling the development of the State.
Panchayat Raj Minister Ayyanna Patrudu said that the TDP government stood by its word by waiving loans of women self-help groups to the tune of Rs. 10,000 crore and that of farmers to the tune of Rs. 24,000 crore.
“In Chittoor district, CC roads have been laid for over a distance of 260 km during 2015-16. Steps have been initiated to construct new Panchayat Raj offices. A sum of Rs.15 lakh will be released for each unit. Similarly, Rs.10 lakh has been allocated for development of each burial ground,” he said.
ZP Chairperson Geervani said that emphasis had been on laying new roads to the rural areas in the last two years.
Earlier, Mr. Ayyanna Patrudu and Mr. Gopalakrishna Reddy laid the foundation stone for the new ZP meeting hall on the premises of the ZP office. TDP district president and MLC G. Srinivasulu, MLAs D.A. Satyaprabha, Sugunamma, Shankar Yadav, and Mr. Amarnatha Reddy, and senior TDP leaders were present.
Negative propaganda
Special Correspondent in Rajamahendravaram writes: TDP Visakhapatnam affairs in charge Ganni Krishna, criticising Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy for his negative propaganda against the Chandrababu Naidu government, asked: “How can an accused in money laundering cases grade the Chief Minister with a clean image? How can a person whose properties have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate go to people and talk about marks and grades?”
Addressing the media here, he referred to the YSR Congress’ ‘Gadapa gadapaku YSRC’ and said that Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy should understand that his party had no future as the negative campaign was bound to boomerang on the opposition leader.
Referring to the crossing over of YSRC MLC Adireddy Appa Rao into the ruling party, Mr. Krishna said that he would welcome the decision of the party, but suggest to the high command to seek a clarification from such leaders as to why they had left the party when it was in a crisis.
