VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Minister for IT & HRD Nara Lokesh strongly countered social media posts by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday, rejecting claims that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech was disrupted by youth protesting over jobs during a high-profile event in Rayalaseema.
The political sparring erupted over a clipped video from Friday’s launch of the Rs 1-lakh-crore ‘Global Horticulture Hub – Rayalaseema Rising’ project in Madanapalle (Annamayya district), attended by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, and Reliance Industries Executive Director Anant Ambani.
Sharing a viral clip on social platform X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that public anger over unemployment had forced the Chief Minister to intervene and silence the crowd during the Finance Minister’s address.
Hitting back directly, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu stated that Ramesh’s interpretation “could not be further from reality.”
Clarifying the sequence of events, Naidu asserted that what was being falsely portrayed as public anger was, in fact, an overwhelming and enthusiastic response from the people.
He noted that the sheer energy of the gathering required a brief intervention to allow the programme to continue smoothly, adding that mistaking people’s enthusiasm for anger reveals how disconnected Congress leaders are from the mood of the public.
Minister Nara Lokesh also called out the Congress leader for circulating unverified claims, urging him to delete the post.
