The YSR Congress Party’s victory in the Tirupati Lok Sabha byelection is a foregone conclusion as people will vote for the good governance of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as seen during the last 21 months, party MLA K Parthasarathi said.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the MLA said that the Chief Minister had implemented over 90% of the promises made in the party’s manifesto in his 21-month administration, despite a severe financial crisis due to COVID-19.
“Unlike the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which deleted its manifesto after failing to fulfill its poll promises, the YSRCP government has redefined welfare by doing more than what was promised,” Mr. Parthasarathi said.
Prioritising farmer welfare, the State government had set up over 10,641 Rythu Bharosa Kendras, benefiting over 15 lakh farmers through YSR Sunna Vaddi Panta Runalu, and spent over ₹4,000 crore providing market intervention to farmers whose crops are failing to fetch even the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and further increased the Rythu Bharosa financial aid from ₹12,500 to ₹13,500 which was being credited directly into the farmer’s accounts, the MLA said.
Mr. Parthasarathi criticised the previous TDP government for ‘burdening farmers with debt and failing to implement the loan waiver scheme as promised’.
“Only 45 lakh people were given pensions under the TDP government, while the YSRCP government has been delivering pensions to 63 lakh people,” Mr. Parthasarathi said, and questioned why the TDP government denied pension to 20 lakh eligible people.
On the death of Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, Mr. Parthasarathi challenged TDP leaders to ‘reveal the roles of Adinarayana Reddy and B. Tech Ravi in the killing’. He said that TDP leaders are trying to malign the Chief Minister’s image by levelling baseless allegations in order to divert people’s attention.