VIJAYAWADA: BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana has served a legal notice on AP Planning Board vice-chairman C Kutumba Rao claiming that the latter’s offer (of Rs 10 lakh if the former secured his deposit in the upcoming election) ‘damaged’ his ‘reputation’. The notice demanded an unconditional apology from Kutumba Rao, failing which a defamation suit would be filed against him seeking Rs 10 crore as compensation.
Pointing out that the remarks were a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, V Srinivasa Raju, Kanna’s advocate, said his client was entitled for damages caused by defamation, mental torture, harassment, agony and humiliation because of the AP Planning Board’s vice-chairman’s ‘offer’. “You are hereby called upon by this notice to tender an unconditional apology to my client and BJP candidates immediately and it should be published in all newspapers, or pay Rs 10 crore towards damages within one week. Else, my client will initiate both civil and criminal proceedings against you,” the notice, released to the media on Sunday, reads.
Earlier in the day, BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao slammed the TDP by calling Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu ‘sticker babu’ for allegedly taking credit for the Centre’s initiatives rolled out in the State. He predicted that the TDP would taste an emphatic defeat in the upcoming elections as people were vexed with its rampant corruption.
Reacting to Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan’s allegations that the BJP and the YSRC had a ‘tacit understanding’, GVL slammed the actor-turned-politician by calling him ‘Package Kalyan’. “Pawan, who actively dealt with issues in Mangalagiri, is now refraining from criticising Nara Lokesh, who is contesting from the segment. Neither is he talking about Chandrababu Naidu. People have clearly understood the tacit understanding he has with the TDP,” he alleged.
GVL, who is his party’s national spokesperson, claimed that the TDP’s false propaganda against the Centre was instead helping the saffron party as people were aware of the Modi government’s commitments. He also observed that Naidu knew that the TDP would lose in the upcoming elections and, hence, was roping in campaigners such as Arvind Kejriwal, Farooq Abdullah, Mamata Banerjee and others, “who have risked their credibility by favouring Naidu”.