AP people eager to send Jagan Mohan Reddy home, says TDP chief

Addressing a public meeting here marking the culmination of the TDP's two-day annual conclave Mahanadu, the former Chief Minister accused the incumbent of "looting" Rs 1.75 lakh crore in his three-year-old rule in the name of welfare programs and dubbed Reddy "a curse to the state".

Ongole: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday accused incumbent Cheif Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy of large-scale corruption saying the people of Andhra Pradesh were vexed with his 'demonic' rule and were eagerly waiting to send him home soon. Addressing a public meeting here marking the culmination of the TDP's two-day annual conclave Mahanadu, the former Chief Minister accused the incumbent of "looting" Rs 1.75 lakh crore in his three-year-old rule in the name of welfare programs and dubbed Reddy "a curse to the state".

Naidu said the Jagan regime pushed the state into a debt trap, borrowing Rs 8 lakh crore in three years. "Liquor prices have been jacked up heavily and all that extra money is going into Reddy's pockets. He is earning Rs 5,000 crore annually only from liquor," the TDP chief alleged.

He alleged that industrialists were "scared away from the state" while the existing industries were "forcibly acquired by the ruling YSR Congress leaders". "Similarly, hundreds of acres of government lands have been illegally grabbed by the ruling party leaders," Chandrababu Naidu claimed that his government spent thousands of crores to build the new city in Amaravati. "But Reddy has left Amaravati in ruins, as a result of which Rs 3 lakh crore worth wealth that was supposed to accrue has evaporated," the former CM lamented.

"People are vexed with this 'Rakshasa Palana' (demonic rule). They are eagerly waiting to send Reddy home and save the state. We have declared a war on the atrocities of the YSRC regime. We will stand by the people, he vowed.

Earlier, the TDP paid glowing tributes to its founder-president, the legend Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao on his 99th birth anniversary. "NTR was NTR. He had no match, be it in movies or politics. He founded the TDP, after having been a movie legend for over four decades, to serve society. We have to carry his ideas forward," Naidu said on the occasion.

He said the party would organize various programs throughout the year to commemorate the birth centenary year of the legend.