VIJAYAWADA: Making no secret of his intention to come to power in AP even before the next elections, YSRC chief Jagan Reddy on Tuesday asserted that within three years he would be in the saddle.
In whistle-stop meetings in the capital region in Guntur district, he predicted the TDP government will fall and he would ascend to power in the state but did not say how. “When I come to power which may not be more than three years, I would restore your lands that had been forcibly taken away from you by the Naidu government for construction of capital city under land-pooling,” the YSRC chief said.
Jagan comments stirred a hornet’s nest with the TDP pouncing on him and the Congress speculating that Jagan, afraid of going to jail because he has not yet been cleared in several cases of corruption being investigated by the CBI, might join hands with the BJP. Minister Devineni Uma said, “He (Jagan) is saying that a democratically elected government will fall within three years. I demand to know how is it going to happen. What is his conspiracy? Let him come clean on this.” On the other hand, with the Centre ignoring AP, it is becoming difficult for the TDP to rein in its leaders who keep on blaming the BJP for leaving the state high and dry in the budget. The latest to join them is Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao.
“The state is in a hopeless situation. The Centre should prove that it is large-hearted by funding the state liberally,” he said. Another development that may not be palatable to the BJP is the TDP MPs’ plan to stage a dharna in Parliament on March 16 during a discussion on the Union Budget.