VIJAYAWADA: Taking serious exception to the comments of YSRC members in the Legislative Council on Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that he boycotted the Assembly during the previous regime, HRD Minister Nara Lokesh, in an emotional outburst, said his father attended the Assembly regularly till the YSRC members had insulted his mother.
“My mother was insulted in the House, and Naidu had stopped attending the Assembly from that day. He vowed not to enter the House till people taught a lesson to those who insulted him and his wife. I or my party members had never commented on YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s family,” he said, demanding to know why the YSRC chief and his party MLAs are boycotting the session.
Making it clear that the remarks made by the YSRC MLCs that Naidu, when in opposition, ran away from the House from 2019 to 2024, were totally false, Lokesh said, “You should remember that my mother was humiliated on the floor of the Assembly, and my father then vowed to re-enter the House only after the Assembly got proper honour.”
Questioning the YSRC MLCs as to how they could say that his mother was not humiliated, Lokesh asked whether any of these members were present in the House at that time. The TDP never made any adverse comments on the family members of Jagan, and it was the YSRC, which humiliated the party chief’s mother YS Vijayamma and his sister YS Sharmila, Lokesh said.
Asserting that Naidu attended the Assembly till 2022, stood alone as a lion on the floor of the House, and fought against the atrocities of the then ruling dispensation, he said, “Though Naidu boycotted the Assembly, the remaining TDP MLAs attended all the sessions.”
Expressing surprise at the comments made by Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Botcha Satyanarayana that they would not defend the humiliators, he pointed out that all those who humiliated his mother were given tickets to contest polls. “People saw that episode. Everything is on record. I am really surprised how Botcha is defending such people,” Lokesh observed.