Appala Raju flays Naidu for 'spreading falsehoods'

Tadepalli (Guntur district): Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Seediri Appala Raju said the TDP would cease to exist after 2024 elections. Addressing the media at YSRCP central office here on Thursday, the minister said that having lost hopes on his son Lokesh, TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu has been trying to gain sympathy of people by spreading falsehoods and even bringing his wife's name in road shows.

Coming down heavily on the TDP president, the minister said that Naidu conducted the Kurnool road show to block the attempts of the government to make Visakhapatnam the executive capital.

Referring to the appeal of Naidu to vote his party to power in the 2024 elections as it would be the last elections for him, the minister claimed that the forthcoming Assembly elections would seal the TDP's fate once for all.

The minister mocked at the TDP chief's assertion that he would transform 'Kaurava Sabha' into 'Gourava Sabha' if voted to power and said that Naidu has become a laughing stock by making such statements.

The TDP chief is in frustration and trying to block the formation of three capitals to protect his self-interests, he said.

While Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy always cooperated with the CBI and never tried to draw sympathy despite the family facing investigation and "harassment" from the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies when he was in the opposition, Chandrababu Naidu was trying to draw sympathy out of frustration and spreading falsehood aiming at political gains.

The minister said that the TDP chief was against turning Kurnool into the judicial capital and simply opposing the decentralisation to protect the interests of his men and supporters.

While the Chief Minister has been aiming at decentralisation for the balanced growth of all regions, the former chief minister is making irrelevant statements as he had no achievements to boast of, he added.

Castigating the TDP president for claiming that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised him for introducing DWCRA scheme, the minister made it clear that while the scheme was introduced by the former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, the former chief minister YSR revived and improved it.

People in north Andhra and Rayalaseema are not in a position to believe Naidu, he said, adding that similar is the case with the people of Vijayawada and Guntur for not allowing development in the Legislative capital region for the sake of his men in 29 villages.