‘Congress, TDP misleading people’

Charging Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu with indulging in “match-fixing”, Praja Rajyam party president K. Chiranjeevi said the two leaders, good friends in the past, were trying to cheat people for keeping the reins of power between themselves.

He alleged that the two leaders, who criticised each other throughout the day became “good friends by night”. All that they had in common was “corruption”, although of different magnitudes. Their ‘close association’ was evident from the way the successive governments suppressed the reports of inquiries instituted against each other.

“Mr. Naidu went a step ahead to gift a power plant to Dr. Reddy for withdrawing cases filed against him and the latter, on his part, did not make public reports of various inquiries ordered against the TDP president,” he said pointing out that the two governments which encouraged Satyam and Maytas “distanced the firms within no time” leaving their chairman in jail.

He was addressing a massive public meeting, ‘Praja Vijaya Bheri’ here on Saturday to mark the formal launch of his party’s election campaign in Telangana. He reiterated his party’s commitment to conduct inquiries against ‘corrupt practices’ of the duo and put all facts in public domain after coming to power. “Politics has become an avocation for the leaders to earn money and PR is committed to end it,” he said, amid lusty cheers from the audience. Former Minister and senior TDP leader Kothapalli Subbarayudu formally joined the Praja Rajyam on Saturday.

Mr. Chiranjeevi also attacked the Congress and TDP for misleading people, particularly the weaker sections, with “false claims”. While both promised to give at least 100 seats to BCs ever since PR came out with social justice as its main plank, the Congress accommodated 86 BC candidates and the TDP 66 in their candidates lists for the forthcoming elections.

He said neither Dr. Reddy nor Mr. Naidu could find a suitable BC from their native districts Kadapa and Chittoor who could be fielded for the elections.

Vehemently criticising the TDP-led Grand Alliance, he said the parties that did not had any ideological similarities nor a common goal joined hands ‘just for the sake of power’.

This was evident from the fact that no party in the alliance was prepared to include separate Telangana in their common manifesto.

TDP’s promises like provision of colour televisions free of cost and cash transfer scheme in particular were “solely” aimed at seeking votes rather than addressing the needs and aspirations of the people.