Lashing out at the Telugu Desam Party, senior leader of YSR Congress Botcha Satyanarayana said that the ruling party should have participated in the State-wide bandh call given by the YSRCP on Tuesday, as it is for a common cause which the TDP also claims to support.
Addressing the media, he said, “We have given the bandh call demanding the Special Category Status to the State. Even the TDP says that they are also serious about it. In that case, why did they not join us? Rather they chose to quell our bandh call by deploying unprecedented police force and arresting our leaders,” he alleged. Mr. Botcha and about 100 YSRCP leaders and activists were arrested in Vizag on Tuesday, as they tried to block the traffic at Maddilapalem.
“The TDP has spent crores of rupees in organising ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’, which was initiated to demand the SCS, and now they do not have the courage to join our movement that is for a common cause. This shows that the TDP and the BJP are hand in glove and their (TDP) earlier protest and the no-confidence motion in Parliament were a farce,” he alleged.
“Mr. Chandrababu Naidu is using Parakala Prabhakar, former communication advisor to the TDP government, who is also the husband of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, as bridge for the tacit understanding,” he alleged.
According to Mr. Botcha, the resentment against the TDP government in the State and the BJP at the Centre was picking up with every passing day and both parties would be rejected by the public in the 2019 elections.
The former Minister said that if the YSRCP was elected to power, the demands such as the SCS, a railway zone with Vizag as headquarters and the Polavaram project would become a reality.