YSR Congress (YSRC) President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Thursday people had two options in 2019 which would be to choose the path of welfare and development laid by his father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy or that of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, which was replete with scandals and smacked of his brand of selfish politics.
He said Mr. Naidu would do anything to meet his personal goals, like he “backstabbed his father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao and recently made his son Lokesh a Minister through dubious means”.
Mr. Jagan alleged that Mr. Naidu prostrated before his Telangana counterpart to wriggle out of the cash-for-vote scam.
Welcoming former Congress MLA Malladi Vishnu into the YSRC in a public meeting here, Mr. Jagan said ‘Mr. Naidu and Delhi’ had hatched conspiracies against him to scuttle his political career but he stood his ground with the support of people, who had seen enough of corrupt governance under the TDP rule and were waiting to give the YSRC the mandate.
“Corruption is glaring in the manner in which land belonging to the poor people was gifted to the rich in the capital region. Land of various temples had been usurped. The Chief Minister maintained silence though the land scandal in Visakhapatnam had reached gigantic proportions. Several lakhs of crores were devoured,” the YSRC chief said.
Mr. Jagan held Mr. Naidu responsible for the death of 30 pilgrims during the Godavari Pushkaram and said he had mortgaged the river waters to other States.
Mr. Naidu ‘sold away’ the Special Category Status and made people believe that the special financial package was more beneficial than the SCS, he said.
Mr. Reddy exuded confidence that “Rajanna Rajyam” would come back in 2019 as his father had won the hearts of the masses through his clean and efficient governance.
“Welfare and development were his top priorities and he ensured that the benefits reached the targeted sections. We will follow in his footsteps. There can be no doubt about it.”