WARANGAL: Refuting allegations that TRS leadership is engineering defections in the Opposition camp, Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao said that MLAs were joining the ruling party not for personal benefit but for the sake of their respective constituencies.
Speaking at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised at Warangal Press Club on Sunday, Dayakar Rao said that MLAs who were joining TRS were doing so as they believe it is the only way they can develop their constituencies. “I too decided to join TRS in 2016 for the sake of people in my constituency. I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said.
Taking strong exception to Congress leaders accusing TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of engineering defections, Dayakar Rao reminded that it was former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who started the culture of defection. “Everyone knows what YSR did in his time. They are feeling the pinch now because it’s their MLAs who are switching parties,” he said.
Continuing his tirade against his former party boss and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Dayakar Rao said that TRS would work for his defeat in the ensuing Assembly polls there. “TDP ministers and MLAs have told me that Naidu’s decision to join hands with Congress was a big blunder. They are scared of their future now,” he said.
The former TDP leader blamed Naidu for the downfall of TDP and said that Naidu sidelined all founder members in the party and promoted his own men. “We opposed Naidu’s entry in to TDP, but NTR took him in anyway. But Naidu ultimately overthrew his father-in-law. Now, by joining hands with Congress, he has destroyed his party’s historical ‘anti-Congress’ stance,” he said.