YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday hit back at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and asked him what was wrong in taking the support of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Telangana to fight for the causes of Andhra Pradesh.
Jagan lashed out after Naidu repeatedly insisted in his campaign speeches over the past week that a vote for the YSRCP was like a vote for the TRS and accused Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of attempting to ‘rule’ Andhra Pradesh through Jagan.
“What is wrong in taking the support of TRS to fight for Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh? We have 25 MPs and Telangana has 17. If the TRS strengthens our hands, we can fight the Centre effectively for our rights. It is unbecoming of a CM and a party president to talk like this. Naidu is stooping down to make baseless allegations against me,” Jagan was quoted as saying.
“Naidu is unable to ask votes based on the development he had done in the State, hence propping up Vivekananda’s murder or KCR’s alleged Rs 1,000 crore donation to me,” Jagan added.
In January this year, Jagan had met with TRS Working President K T Rama Rao and discussed KCR’s proposal of a Federal Front; a consortium of regional parties. The politicians expressed hope, that with YRSCP and TRS predicted to win a large chunk of the 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh and 17 seats in Telangana respectively, Jagan joining hands with KCR for the Federal Front could make it formidable, or least give the front significant bargaining power.
Elections to the 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh are scheduled for April 11.
IANS inputs