The war of words between the Telugu Desam Party and Congress MP Daggubati Purandeswari over garnering credit for installing NTR’s statue in Parliament, took a new turn with Nandamuri Balakrishna joining the issue.
Mr. Balakrishna in a release here on Tuesday launched a scathing attack against Ms. Purandeswari and her husband D. Venkateswara Rao and stated that the credit for installing NTR statue in Parliament would go to TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu alone.
Mr. Balakrishna said when late G. M. C. Balayogi was the Lok Sabha Speaker and late MP Yerran Naidu was the member of the Portrait Committee, Mr. Naidu saw to it that the stipulations were relaxed to install NTR statue in Parliament. But by then, the Congress formed the government in the State.
Poser
In a poser to Ms. Purandeswari, Mr. Balakrishna sought to know what did she do when the then Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy refused to give the statue on behalf of the State.
“When the NTR family offered to present the statue and sought your signature, you dodged the issue till the date given by the Speaker for statue installation expired. Then you promptly wrote a letter to the Speaker offering to install it in your individual capacity to take the credit. And now you talk of family.”
Mr. Balakrishna also reminded that he offered to share the cost of the statue to keep family reputation intact.
Advising the Minister to do some introspection, he said Mr. Naidu had written to the Speaker to install the statue at the earliest whether it was given by the party or family. Yet a conspiracy was being hatched to show Mr.Naidu in poor light, he alleged.
