Telugu Desam Party national president N. Chandrababau Naidu, during his campaign for the party nominee for Tirupati Lok Sabha byelection Panabaka Lakshmi on Saturday, accused the YSRCP government of misusing the functionaries at the grassroots level, fearing a ‘debacle in the poll’.
“Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy who was confident of winning the bypoll by 5 lakh plus margin initially, is now in jitters,” he said while addressing a series of party workers’ meeting in Nellore district.
He told the party cadres that ‘the days of the TDP returning to power was not far away’ and wanted them to resist all the attempts by the YSRCP government to ‘push the State into ‘anarchy’.
The Leader of Opposition accused the ruling party of roping in a band of volunteers, Self Help Group (SHG) members, Anganwadi and Asha workers in the villages in a desperate bid to improve its poll prospects.
He asked the party workers in Sarvepalli and other places to expose the ‘sinister designs’ of the ruling party. He asked them to meet every voter in each cluster comprising 50 families and find out the issues in various localities.
“The TDP workers should build confidence among the voters that there is no question of denial of their rights to benefits of welfare schemes,” he said.
Mr. Naidu asked the party leaders concerned to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission pertaining to the alleged misuse of grassroots functionaries and electoral malpractice by the ruling party.
Meanwhile, Ms. Panabaka Lakshmi endeared herself to a group of weavers at Chennur near Gudur by spinning cotton on a charkha. As the weavers recalled the worksheds sanctioned to them when she was a Union Minister, Ms. Lakshmi promised to get sanctioned subsidised yarn and dyes and arrange for improved marketing facilities.
Special Category Status
Ms. Lakshmi campaigned in many villages in the Gudur Assembly segment. “Even as the people gave an overwhelming mandate to the YSRCP in 2019 elections, the ruling party MPs have done a little in the Parliament to by electing its candidates in 22 of the 25 MP seats goinging by its promise to help achieve the Special Category Status (SCS) to the State.It was the TDP MPs who had been forcefully raising the gross injustice caused to the State by the Narendra Modi Government which had remained indifferent to the assurances made to the state at the time of bifurcation. I will champion the cause in the Lok Sabha, if elected in the bypoll,” she said. while reminding the Prime Minister's promise to provide SCS for 15 years.
She alleged that the BJP at the Centre and the YSRCP in the State had made the lives of the people miserable by imposing hefty taxes. “As a result, the prices of all essential commodities have gone up to unprecedented levels,” she said.
