Even as the row over scaling down of security cover to former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is yet to die down, the State government has allegedly scaled down the security cover for his family members.
Though there is no official confirmation over it, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders allege that the security of Mr. Naidu’s son, Nara Lokesh, who earlier had ‘Z’ category cover, has been now scaled down to ‘Y’. Mr. Lokesh will now get 2+2 security guards against 5+5 earlier, they said.
The issue came up for discussion at a meeting of TDP leaders the TDP leaders held at Mr. Naidu’s residence on Tuesday, attended by former Home Minister Nimmakayala Chinarajappa, K. Atchannaidu, Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Kaluva Srinivasulu, Kollu Ravindra, and others. They alleged that Mr. Naidu and his family members came to know about this after their return from a foreign trip on Tuesday. The security of other family members had been completely withdrawn. The TDP alleged that it was done without informing them.
They recalled that the TDP government did not scale down security of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s wife Vijayamma and their daughter Y.S. Sharmila though Security Review Committee (SRC) had recommended it.
Mr. Naidu, who was Chief Minister then, rejected the SRC recommendations. He further reminded that their security was the government’s responsibility. Z category security was provided to Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was Opposition leader then. It was latest move by the State government as another act of vendetta politics. It was unfortunate that the government was playing with lives, they said.
Mr. Naidu, his wife Bhuvaneswari, Mr. Lokesh, daughter-in-law Brahmani and grandson Devansh landed in Hyderabad after their holiday to Europe.