TD's Efforts to Project Attack on Jagan as ‘Self-inflicted’ Falls Flat
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam’s efforts to showcase the attack on Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in Vijayawada on Saturday as “self-inflicted to garner sympathy” have fallen flat on Wednesday.
Party candidate from Vijayawada Central, Bonda Uma, revealed that a resident of a local basti has admitted he threw a stone on the Chief Minister out of sheer anger. The anger, according to Uma, emanated from the state government’s decision to close down the “Anna Canteens”, an initiative of the Chandrababu Naidu-led government to supply meals at Rs.5 each.
Uma, speaking to a vernacular television channel, also said the suspect, said to be in police custody, was also upset over the YSRC leaders failing to keep their promise of paying him money and serving liquor for attending the CM’s road show.
“Uma’s revelation clearly exposed the double standards of the TD and Chandrababu Naidu. Till now, they tried to project that the ruling party orchestrated the attack to gain sympathy and now, when the truth is about to come out, the party changed its version,” alleged the YSRC spokesperson.
Ever since the Chief Minister sustained injury, the TD leaders took to social media ridiculing the attack as “kodi katti 2.0”, citing that the ruling party enacted a similar attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy before the 2019 polls, with a knife, in Visakhapatnam airport.
Though TD chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu condemned the attack and demanded an unbiased probe, his son and party general secretary Nara Lokesh tweeted ridiculing the attack and indicating it as self-inflicted.
TD’s state unit president K. Atchannaidu dismissed the attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy as a “poll stunt scripted by Jagan Mohan Reddy and the senior police officials – DGP and Intelligence chief – fearing severe drubbing in polls.”
“It is nothing but Kodi Katti 2.0,” he added.
The party’s official handle on X, the social media platform, also maintained that it was an orchestrated attack.
TD now changed its tack and accused the YSRC of trying to implicate Bonda Uma in the case.
Uma, trying to put on a brave face, threatened to take action against the police officials trying to implicate him once the TD government is formed. Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan, addressing public meetings on Wednesday, presented a similar narrative, that the police have been preparing the ground to implicate Uma.
Jana Sena’s official handle reposted a tweet of a follower, which inadvertently admitted that the attack was not orchestrated. It sought to project that Jagan Mohan Reddy tried to blame the Opposition for the attack, contrary to the fact that some disgruntled elements threw a stone on Jagan Mohan Reddy over the party’s failure to fulfil the promise of food and liquor to the road show participants.
