Naidu shedding crocodile tears for Dalits: YSRCP MLA

Chodavaram MLA Karanam Dharmasri has alleged that Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is shedding crocodile tears for Dalits to gain publicity.

The former Chief Minister, who had failed to respond to attacks on Dalits by his own partymen in the past, was now targeting the YSR Congress Party government, though action was initiated against the accused in the incident relating to the attack and tonsure of a Dalit youth within 24 hours, he said a media conference here on Monday.

He said that YSRCP came to know that Nutan Naidu, at whose house the Dalit youth was attacked and tonsured, was a Jana Sena Party (JSP) supporter, only after an inquiry.

But, Mr. Naidu was talking as though Nutan Naidu had links with the YSRCP. The TDP had opposed the efforts of the State government to allot house plots to the Dalits, he alleged.

Mr. Dharmasri explained that the State government was giving importance to all castes unlike Mr. Naidu, who was interested in the welfare of only one caste.

The growing support to the YSRCP in north Andhra was leading to a sense of insecurity in the TDP president and making him resort to false propaganda to portray the ruling party in bad light, he said.