Taking strong exception to the allegations made by TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu that former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy had gifted the Bayyaram mines to her, YSRC leader Y.S. Sharmila on Tuesday maintained that procedures were duly followed in the allocation of the mines to the Rakashana Steels.
‘Not a wedding gift’“I have not made a single rupee from the Bayyaram mines. Two firms had bid for the mines and the Rakshana Steels, which had tied with a foreign company, won the tender. No rule was flouted,” she said. while addressing an impressive road show in Darsi assembly segment of the Ongole Lok Sabha constituency She campaigned in support of YSRC candidate for Darsi Assembly constituency B. Sivaprasad Reddy and Ongole MP candidate Y.V. Subba Reddy.
She contended that Mr. Naidu and a section of the media close to him were making a ‘malicious propaganda’ to mislead the voters in the run up to the elections. Both the TDP and the Congress were equally responsible for the State's division, she said, adding that Mr. Naidu had failed to protect the people's interest as the Leader of the Opposition. He even went to the extent of propping up the Congress government when a no-confidence motion was moved against it.
Mr. Naidu, referring to a report in a leading Telugu daily, had alleged that YSR had given the Bayyaram mines to Ms. Sharmila as her wedding gift. The YSRC leader contended that when Mr. Naidu was the Chief Minister, he had allotted huge stretch of land in Hyderabad to the IMG Bharat for a song. “For a person seeing with coloured glasses everything will look differently,” she said.
Drumming up supportDescribing the YSR’s tenure as a golden period in the history of Andhra Pradesh, she urged the voters to make her brother Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy victorious in the coming polls, promising that Mr. Jagan would use all his energies to ensure all-round development of the State.
