Former minister Daggubati Venkateswara Rao opined that YSRCP in the State is ably playing the role of Opposition in the State and padayatra by its chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has helped the party stand up.
Dr. Rao, who quit Congress and politics in 2014 post bifurcation, shared his views on the current political situation in the State and the impact of bifurcation on it, here on Wednesday.
“Mr. Jagan’s yatra has helped the party rise in the State. Any party does mobilisation of people, even TDP did it during Chandrababu Naidu’s padayatra. What matters is if the people are coming voluntarily or not,” he said.
On Amaravati Dr. Rao, the eldest son-in-law of TDP founder and former CM N.T. Rama Rao, said every leader wants to use the opportunity and wishes to build a capital and take credit for it which is acceptable. “However, aspects such as decentralisation of development, environment should be considered. This (Amaravati) is not just the wealth of farmers, it is the natural resource of the nation as it is capable of yielding three crops a year. In places like Anantapur, farmers dig bore wells up to 3,000 feet for groundwater for an acre of land, which is not the case with thousands of acres of land here,” he said.
He refused to speak on the governance of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the campaign by JSP chief Pawan Kalyan.
On the impact of bifurcation on AP, Dr. Rao said that State has been gifted with prestigious educational institutions such as IIM, IIT and AIIMS and other projects only after bifurcation.
“No leader in this region dared to speak of Polavaram fearing loss of vote share in Telangana region for many years before bifurcation. Even when the then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda asked for proposals on Polavaram, no leader responded,” he said.
Son’s political debut
Asked about speculations of his son Hitesh Chenchuram’s entry into politics and contesting the coming general elections, Dr. Rao hinted that the former was prepared to contest, but refused to go into details.
On Prime MInister Narendra Modi, Dr. Rao said, “I see him as a selfless man. Decisions such as demonetisation and GST were taken with good intention but were poorly implemented due to non-cooperation of the system.”
