Taking a cue from Jaganmohan Reddy’s oft-repeated plea to send 30-odd MPs of his party to Parliament, former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the people to elect 25 MPs of his new party, which he launched here on Wednesday evening, in the coming elections.
Launching his Jai Samaikyandhra Party (JSP) at a well-attended meeting, Mr. Kiran Reddy made an emotional plea to the people to send at least 25 MPs of his party to keep the State united. He said the division of the State is not complete yet and added that he launched the party to retain the self-respect of the Telugu people.
In his 40-minute-long speech, he lashed out at Congress, TDP, YSR Congress and BJP for failing to stop the bifurcation of the State. He asked the public whether they were ready to vote for a man (read TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu) who had given a letter to the Union government in support of bifurcation. He also trained his guns on YSRC leader Jaganmohan Reddy, saying the latter did not want unity and that he had a tacit understanding with the Centre so that the cases are withdrawn against him.
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Playing the ‘sacrifice’ card, he said he gave up the Chief Minister’s post to uphold the self-respect of the Telugu people.
“A Union Minister said I had betrayed the Congress. Telugu people know very well that who betrayed them. Congress party has cheated the Telugu people with the connivance of BJP,” he said, launching a blistering attack on the Congress.
Mr. Kiran Reddy said that he went all out to convince Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi against bifurcation. He said he had decided to quit the Congress with which his family had ties since 1967 only to protect the interests of Telugus.
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Former MPs Vundavalli Arun Kumar, G.V. Harsha Kumar, Sabbam Hari and Lagadapati Rajagopal, former Minister Pitani Satyanaryana and former Congress leader Tulasi Reddy attended the meeting.