VIJAYAWADA: TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu kickstarted his campaign for the urban local body polls by taking out a roadshow in the Kurnool Municipal Corporation (KMC) limits on Thursday evening. Naidu’s roadshow, which began from Old City, passed through the historic Kondareddy Buruju, Children’s Park, SBI circle, RTC New bus station, Bellary Chowrasta and concluded at Kallur, where he addressed an impressive public gathering late in the evening. Naidu fired salvos at the YSRC government describing it as “Tuqlak rule”.
“Jagan Mohan Reddy sought votes during the 2019 elections for ‘one chance’ to rule the State. Now, he is ruining the lives of the people after coming to power,’’ Naidu alleged.He called upon people to teach Jagan Mohan Reddy a lesson by defeating the YSRC candidates in the March 10 municipal elections. “No scheme introduced by the government has helped the people,’’ he claimed. On the issue of sale of low quality liquor in the State, Naidu said liquor consumption is leading to death of several people. “People are going to neighbouring Telangana to get quality liquor,’’ he added.
Naidu, who was detained at Tirupati airport by the police and made to return to Hyderabad without attending the protest programmes planned in Tirupati and Chittoor, asked police not to misuse their power to please their political bosses by curbing protests. “Police have forced candidates to withdraw from the poll fray and threatened them of foisting cases, if they do not withdraw their papers during the recently concluded Gram Panchayat elections and even in the ongoing municipal polls,’’ Naidu alleged.The TDP chief will leave for Visakhapatnam on Friday and campaign for the party candidates in the GVMC elections.
‘Go back’ slogans
Advocates led by the Kurnool Bar Association staged a protest during Naidu’s roadshow raising slogans ‘Naidu, Go Back’ alleging that the TDP chief was not favouring location of AP High Court in ‘judicial capital’ Kurnool.