KURNOOL: Telugu Desam national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu who launched his party’s municipal poll campaign from Kurnool on Thursday called upon the people to get rid of the “scourge” of Jagan rule and envision its replacement with a people's government led by the TD.
“People are fed up with Jagan’s rule, and it will not be long before TD returns to power,” Naidu said.
Naidu who held a roadshow from Peddamarket to Chennamma circle covering all the important junctions in Kurnool city sought to strike a familiar chord with the public and spoke about the rise in petrol and gas prices and lack of avenues to earn a decent living in the state.
The former CM said if his party was voted to power, his first step would be the cancellation of the steep hike in property taxes. He expressed optimism that the TD would win Kurnool Municipal Corporation in the present polls, as he “sees a surge in people’s support towards the TD”.
Advocates of the Kurnool bar association raised slogans of "Go back Naidu" as he had not favoured shifting of the AP high court to Kurnool. He told them they were misguided by vested interests and that he was never against the ‘High Court for Kurnool’ demand.
Addressing a well-attended meeting at Chennamma circle, Naidu trashed the YSRC and said chief minister Jagan had sought votes of the people in the assembly polls in 2019 by beseeching them to give him "one chance", and that was enough to “ruin the lives of the people”.
He compared Jagan to a "live wire" that burned whoever came in contact with it.
On the populist schemes of YSRC like Ammavodi, Naidu said money transferred on one account was squeezed out by others. “Your husbands consume liquor supplied by government shops at exorbitant rates. The government is taking away your money.” Referring to the interstate movement of people and cargo between Mahbubnagar and Kurnool, he said, “all the money goes to Telangana” and "crazy brands of liquor in AP" too were money suckers.
In a reference to his detention at an airport, Naidu appealed to the police not to misuse their powers to please those who wielded power at the top and curbed the movement of political leaders. He said the police were brazenly subverting their power by forcing people to withdraw nominations in gram panchayat and municipal polls. Police were also foisting false cases to burden them with court proceedings, he said, adding that things will change for the good and TD is well on its way back to power as the “people are fed up with Jagan rule”.
