The ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Sunday, April 14, pinned the blame on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s speech for the attack on Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. CM Jagan was injured in a stone attack by an unidentified person during his election campaign, ‘Memantha Siddham Yatra’ in Vijayawada on Saturday. 

Following the attack, the YSRCP has pointed to Naidu’s speech in Tadikonda constituency on Saturday, April 13. The TDP supremo was campaigning for TDP, in support of Tadikonda MLA aspirant P Chandrashekar when he likened CM Jagan to a dunnapothu (Ox). 

“You all trusted ‘traitor’ Jagan in 2019 and ended up supporting him over me. You let go off a milk-giving-cow and chose an Ox. We have kicked that Ox around for the last five years and let go off hopes. Now that you are more aware, take a stone, take anything which you get your hands on, and defeat the Ox and ensure that the Fan (YSRCP’s party symbol) is reduced to nothing. This is how I hope you will proceed further,” said Chandrababu. 

Prior to the statements in question, the TDP president spoke about how he dreamt of ensuring that Tadikonda constituency’s drinking water problems were solved. “25% of the work for our national Polavaram project was done under my CMship. If I was the Chief Minister in 2019, the project would have been completed by 2020. But in the meantime, ‘traitor’ Jagan became the CM,” he said. 

Following the attack on Jagan, several leaders of the YSRCP have dubbed Chandrababu’s statements ‘hate speech’. Andhra Pradesh Tourism, Culture and Youth Advancement minister RK Roja protested in Nagari constituency and demanded that a case be registered against Chandrababu Naidu for his statements. “We have kept quiet despite repeated verbal attacks on YSRCP and our leader. We cannot keep quiet anymore. For statements like these, Chandrababu and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan should be arrested,” she said.