HYDERABAD: A day after losing four MLAs and an MLC to ruling TDP, Leader of the Opposition and YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said engineering defections will cost Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu dear. He said people at the grassroots level were vexed with Chandrababu Naidu’s government and were waiting to teach him a lesson.
Speaking to mediapersons after submitting a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Nilayam in New Delhi on Tuesday, Jagan alleged that Naidu has been engineering defections from the very beginning of his political career and has been adopting unethical methods to lure opposition party MLAs.
“He did same thing to TDP founder and former chief minister NT Rama Rao to become CM. After becoming CM, he engineered defections from the opposition parties and is continuing the same practice even now,” he alleged.
He claimed that within a year, TDP MLAs and leaders will make a beeline to join YSRC as they will not be able to face the people due to Naidu’s anti-people policies.
Deeply hurt by his right hand Nandyal MLA Bhuma Nagireddy and his daughter Bhuma Akhila Priya, joining ruling TDP, Jagan said he was deeply hurt by Nagireddy’s decision to join TDP. “He was like my family member. When his wife Shobha Nagireddy died in an accident my entire family was with him. I cannot believe that he had deserted me,” he said. He said all the four MLAs have committed a grave mistake by joining the ruling party as they have to now answer the people.
Jagan Meets President
YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to exert pressure on the NDA government to fulfil all the promises made to the residual state of Andhra Pradesh, including special category status, special packages and financial incentives. Jagan also urged the President to order CBI probe into the incidents of violence that occurred during the Kapu Ikya Garjana at Tuni in East Godavari district, call money racket and illegal sand mining in Andhra Pradesh.