INTERVIEW | Performance, goodwill will bring TDP back to power: Kesineni Srinivas

In a tete-a-tete with Phanindra Papasani, sitting TDP MP Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) is more than confident of a second consecutive victory and feels the party of ‘cheats’, YSRC, will be washed away in t
INTERVIEW | Performance, goodwill will bring TDP back to power: Kesineni Srinivas

In a tete-a-tete with Phanindra Papasani, sitting TDP MP Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) is more than confident of a second consecutive victory and feels the party of ‘cheats’, YSRC, will be washed away in the elections. Excerpts:

What made you think that the Opposition YSRC, which has a strong cadre base in the State and won 67 Assembly and eight Lok Sabha seats in the last elections, would get washed away?
What do people need? They need development, welfare, health, housing and trust that their elected leader will solve their problems. Chandrababu Naidu’s government has proved that the TDP is a people’s party. In the past five years, our government proved what we are and initiated many schemes that were not promised in the manifesto. The confidence the people have on us will keep us ahead of the YSRC, the party of the cheats, such as Jagan Mohan Reddy and his candidates. People will vote for the TDP. Mark my words. Jagan’s party will get washed away.

In your tenure as an MP, what are the development activities you personally designed for Vijayawada city and your segment?
Instead of spending MPLADS funds, I personally planned to develop every village in my segment as a model one. For that, I approached Tata Trusts and convinced them to take up development programmes in 264 villages under Vijayawada constituency. Then Chairman of Tata Trusts, Ratan Tata, had personally come to Vijayawada and expressed his willingness to develop the villages. Now, the villages are getting drinking water, roads, individual toilets and other amenities.

What about Vijayawada?
For Vijayawada, I can proudly claim that Kanaka Durga flyover wouldn’t have been possible had TDP not been there. Due to some internal reasons, the completion of the flyover is getting delayed. For those (opposition leaders) who are portraying it as a failure of the TDP, I want to clear the air that it’s a critical engineering beauty and will be completed by July.

You said villages are getting pure drinking water. If so, why as many as 70 people died of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and are suffering from bone ailments in Mylavaram and Tiruvuru constituencies?
We cannot blame all the deaths on the consumption of contaminated water. There are some people, who lost lives due to consumption of cheap and adulterated liquor.

Would the positive wind for the YSRC and TDP failure of bringing special status to the State eat into your winning chances?
Absolutely not. In all the seven Assembly constituencies that come under Vijayawada Lok Sabha segment, TDP holds a strong cadre base and people are happy with our performance. It’s the BJP which failed to keep up its promise of SCS. Despite that, we generated employment for the youth. TDP fought with BJP and we will continue our fight till the Centre gives SCS.

It’s a rare case in the segment where one person has got elected twice. Do you think people will vote for you again?
There is no opposition. We completely ignored him as his presence doesn’t make any difference. I won against Koneru Rajendra Prasad of YSRC with a vote margin of 74,714 in 2014 elections. This time I’m expecting a huge margin.

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