YSRCP MLA from Venkatagiri Anam Ramanarayana Reddy recently made a few critical comments on the state of governance in Nellore district. This has been received with scorn by the party’s National General Secretary V Vijayasai Reddy, also a close aide of Chief Minister Jagan, who warned that anybody who does not toe the party line will face strict consequences.
On Friday, Ramanarayana Reddy told reporters that Nellore is riddled with gang violence, land grabbing, betting, land mafia, liquor mafia and sand mafia. “Nellore has been handed over to the mafia gangs. Lakhs of people are unable to voice their grievances,” he said.
Ramanarayana Reddy said that the system was failing and for things to change, the government machinery, democratic policies and people’s representatives must change.
“To improve the situation, we need self-empowered authorities. Do we have them? Even if such people are appointed, we don't let them stay. We MLAs ask that they must be sent away immediately. Recently, 3 to 4 SPs (Superintendent of Police) have been changed. There have been SPs who haven’t stayed even for a year in Nellore,” Ramanarayan Reddy said.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, YSRCP General Secretary Vijayasai Reddy said, “YSRCP is a regional party. Every member of the party must obey the party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy. If anyone fails to do so, action has been taken against such people in the past and will be taken in the future. No one can cross the party line. If there are any differences of opinion on a particular issue, they must come and discuss with the party chief. It is not right to talk about it to the media.”
Ramanarayana Reddy’s comments are being read as an indication of his differences with Nellore City MLA and Minister of Water Resources Anil Kumar Yadav and Nellore Rural MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy.
Responding to Ramanarayana Reddy’s remarks on the repeated transfer of inconvenient SPs, Water Resources Minister Anil Kumar Yadav said he was unsure what the comments meant. “He might have been talking about the previous government, as he said 3 to 4 SPs have changed. Since we (YSRCP) came into power, only one SP has changed,” Anil Kumar said.
Nellore Rural MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy has been in trouble with the police more than once in the recent past. In August, Sridhar Reddy was booked by the police for allegedly barging into the house of a journalist and trying to intimidate him. The MLA was allegedly provoked after Dolendra Prasad, a senior journalist and editor of Telugu weekly magazine Zamin Ryot, reported the abusive behaviour of the MLA to YSRCP President and Andhra CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
According to Prasad, Sridhar Reddy went to his house along with ten of his aides in an inebriated state, and started abusing him.
In October, Sridhar Reddy was again booked for allegedly harassing a female Mandal Parishad Development Officer (MPDO) for a delay in providing water connections to a layout owned by YSRCP spokesperson B Sreekanth. At the time, CM Jagan directed DGP Gautham Sawang not to hesitate to take action against the MLA if there was sufficient evidence. Following the controversial incident, Sridhar Reddy told reporters that he had personal differences with the SP, which might influence the case. “While I am lucky to have Jagan as my leader, my bad luck is that he has given freedom to the district SP. We have personal differences, he has troubled me before and after the elections,” Sridhar Reddy told reporters at the time, claiming that he earlier complained to the District Collector as well about the SP.
Earlier, Sridhar Reddy was in the news for his flattery towards the Chief Minister, as he took his oath as MLA in the name of Jagan Mohan Reddy, claiming he considered his leader as his god.
Recently, following YSRCP MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju’s comments in Parliament on preserving mother tongues at a time when the YSRCP government’s decision to make English medium in government schools mandatory was being widely debated, Jagan reportedly said that disciplinary action would be taken against any leader who did not toe the party line, even to the extent of suspension from the party .