Hindupur MP Gorantla Madhav came down heavily on Telugu Desam Party national general secretary Nara Lokesh on Tuesday over the latter’s criticism of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s working style.
“Nara Lokesh neither has the stature nor the capability to comment on the style of functioning of the Chief Minister,” Mr. Madhav said in response to comments made by the TDP leader during a visit to Tadipatri on Monday.
The MP demanded that Mr. Lokesh come up with evidence to substantiate his claim that the YSR Congress Party had offered ₹50 crore to TDP leader K. Atchannaidu for crossing over to the ruling party along with his family members. “There is no need for the ruling party to do so as we already have 151 MLAs in the Assembly. Also, there are no vacant slots in the party,” Mr. Madhav said.
“Parroting a few lines of script given to Mr. Lokesh does not make him a tall leader,” said Mr. Madhav, alleging that Mr. Lokesh had become a politician in a ‘backdoor business deal’. “His lack of popularity is evident by the way he lost the election in Mangalagiri,” the former police officer said.
He also questioned Mr. Lokesh as to why the police should not conduct an investigation into alleged wrongdoings of TDP leaders like J.C. Prabhakar Reddy and representatives of Jatadhara Industries, and why the TDP cannot come up with evidence to prove their innocence.
“Police will question officials of Ashok Leyland as and when needed, and the company had already given in writing that it had sold vehicles as scap and that they were not registrable,” Mr. Madhav said. An inquiry into the role of officers involved in the registration of BS-III vehicles as BS-IV vehicles was also being probed and action initiated, the MP said.