VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress party (YSRC) general secretary C Ramachandraiah on Thursday came down heavily on Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao for his ‘antics’ and alleged that the latter had a history of poll-related violence.
“He is the most controversial politician in the State and was in the thick of poll-related violence since long. There was a bomb explosion at his house during election time, which was pursued by the CBI. Chandrababu Naidu used his connection with the then AB Vajpayee government to bring him out of the case,’’ Ramachandraiah told reporters here.
Ramachandraiah said violence on the polling day was perpetrated and provoked by Kodela as he went inside the polling booth and stayed there for hours, rising the tempers of voters standing in the queues outside.
He added that even as the Speaker of State Assembly, Kodela had degraded the institution by behaving like a TDP worker, gagging the voice of the Opposition party MLAs.