Dropping enough hints of things to come in the 2014 elections, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu virtually raised the bar to include national-level crusade against corruption and Ganga-Cauvery river linkage in his agenda.
Addressing a mammoth gathering of party leaders and workers at ‘Praja Garjana’ — reckoned as a precursor to the election campaign — at the foot of Tirumala Hills here on Sunday, Mr. Naidu vowed to stamp out corruption from the country and even administered an oath to the public to work for the same. Dubbing graft a serious problem plaguing the country, he cautioned that public indifference would be tantamount to accepting it. He called upon every citizen to become an Anna Hazare, while referring to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) victory as an indication of growing public intolerance to corruption and vowed to attach the properties of tainted politicians and use the same for development.
Foreseeing the general elections as just “100 days away”, he urged the party workers to strive as soldiers to keep the ‘corrupt and inept’ Congress at bay. Likening the election to ‘Kurukshetra war’, an emotionally charged Mr. Naidu thundered that truth would always prevail. “Come to the streets and explain to the public how corruption derails development projects as well as the welfare schemes,” he noted.
On bifurcation, he squarely blamed UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for taking the decision not as a policy, but with the sole intention of weakening the TDP.
The Congress going for “match-fixing” with TRS in Telangana and YSR Congress in Seemandhra region, at the cost of its own leaders in both the regions, is indicative of its dirty politics, he slammed, while adding a poser: “When the bill does not satisfy the people of both the regions, for whose sake is this bifurcation?”
Former ministers Y. Ramakrushnudu, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, G. Muddukrishnama Naidu and B. Gopalakrishna Reddy, Rajyasabha member C.M. Ramesh and State spokesperson Varla Ramaiah also spoke.
