Calling upon the party leaders to put up an united fight, YSRC honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi sounded the poll bugle for the local body elections from the temple town on Friday.
“Opposition parties should know our strength. We should bag more than 80 per cent of local bodies,’’ she said at the regional meeting of the party held in Tirupati.
The YSRC held its first regional meet with its party leaders from the four districts of Rayalaseema and Nellore district in which thousands of activists took part.
All the party MPs, MLAs, and those who were recently disqualified by the Assembly Speaker, MLCs, district conveners and leaders of various wings of the party took part. Mantralayam MLA Bala Naga Reddy missed the meeting on personal grounds.
Vijayamma was accorded a grand welcome at Renigunta airport on her arrival on Friday morning. She was taken to the meeting venue in a convoy by party MLAs and leaders.
In her inaugural speech, Vijayamma listed out the various schemes initiated by her husband and former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. She also took a swipe at the present government for diluting all the schemes of Rajasekhara Reddy. “Arogyasri has now become Anarogyasri,’’ she said amidst slogans of Jai Jagan raised by thousands of party members.
Vijayamma alleged that after the death of YSR, the TDP and Congress have joined hands and are leaving no stone unturned to defame her son. On the non-conduct of elections to local bodies since the past two years, the YSRC honorary president said it had led to stagnation of development in villages.
“The coming local bodies should be a platform for us to show our strength for the 2014 general elections,’’ she said. She also tried to tell the audience how the Congress had been using the CBI and create hurdles for Jagan. “In the FIR, Jagan’s name figured as accused no 52. But, in the chargesheet, he is shown as the accused no 1. This explains how the probe is going on,’’ she said.
After the day long deliberations, Vijayamma asked the party activists and leaders to put a united fight in the elections. She hoped that Jagan would participate in the Vijayotsava’ (victory) meeting of the party.
Apart from the MLA’s, MP’s and MLCs, party leaders like M V Mysura Reddy, Ambati Rambabu, Roja and other participated.
Later, she went to former MLA and party district secretary A S Manohar’s residence in Chittoor town. Vijayamma, when asked about Friday’s Chalo Assembly developments in Telangana, said that the Kiran Kumar Reddy government is creating hype by making unprecedented security arrangement. Vijayamma later left for Bengaluru.
