Hyderabad: YSRC’s star campaigner Y.S. Sharmila called upon voters to defeat the Congress for burdening them with a series of hikes in power tariff and for failing to control the soaring prices of essential commodities.
In the same breath, she launched a tirade against TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu for colluding with the Congress and ensuring that the ruling party survived the no-confidence motion moved by the YSRC in the Assembly last year. However, she spared TRS and its president K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Addressing a series of meetings in the Assembly constituencies of Qutbullapur, Malkajgiri, Secunderabad and LB Nagar, Sharmila said the power hike and levy of FSA resulted in an additional burden of Rs 32,000 crore on the people. She reminded the people that during Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s tenure as CM, no hike in taxes, power or water tariff were allowed.
“When former PM Rajiv Gandhi died, his name was removed from the Bofors arms deal case. On the contrary, the name of YSR was included in the FIR by the Congress government after the death of the great leader. How can they expect a dead person to come and justify,” she said.
She brushed aside the claims of Naidu developing Hyderabad. “In fact, it was Naidu who withdrew the G.O. on the formation of Greater Hyderabad. When YSR became Chief Minister, he took steps to merge 12 surrounding municipalities and formed Greater Hyderabad,” she said and made light of Naidu’s achievements by saying that constructing a building or two and housing IT companies does not mean developing the entire city.
She listed the pro-poor schemes of former CM Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy like Arogyasri, fee reimbursement, old-age pension, 4 per cent reservations for Muslims, 108 ambulance service, pavla vaddi scheme for women and appealed to vote for Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to ensure continuity of those schemes.
People in large numbers lined up on either side of the road to have a glimpse of Y.S. Sharmila, as her road show moved from one constituency to another in the city. Braving the heat, women also came out in substantial numbers to listen to her.
However, voters in cantonment were disappointed as she did not address the meeting in Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly limits as the YSRC had procured permission for only a road show in this constituency.
