The 60-foot bronze statue of former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao being planned by the Telugu Desam Party after four and half years is an attempt to exploit the love and affection the people have for the great leader, said his wife and YSR Congress Party general secretary N Lakshmi Parvathi here on Thursday.
‘Nothing in Amaravati’
Ms Parvathi told the media that she had come to see the development of Amaravati. People outside were being given a grand picture but there was nothing but mud, slush and leaking buildings. “Credit should be given to the government for arranging water falls inside the buildings,” she said sarcastically referring to the leakage of rainwater into the Chamber of Leader of the Opposition Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
She said nothing would come out of the statue project.
Resolutions had been passed many times in party conclaves and also the Assembly demanding the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on NTR but nothing came out of it, she said.
She alleged that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told her that her “son-in-law” N Chandrababu Naidu was obstructing the conferring of the award on NTR.
She alleged that Mr. Naidu was not allowing NTR’s grandson Junior NTR to enter the TDP because he would outshine his son Lokesh. All the welfare schemes named after NTR were being systematically destroyed, she charged.
NTR never compromised on the self-respect of the Telugu people but Mr. Naidu was entering into alliances with every party possible. After NTR was pushed out, the poor had been “necked out” of the TDP “making space for the corporate sector and a home for corruption”.
All the poor were moving to the YSR Congress party because they were welcome there, she said. Now it had even lost the anti-Congress brand with Mr. Naidu entering into an alliance even with it, she said.