Vijayawada: Hours after the Election Commission announced the date for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu invoked Andhra pride and said a vote for YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy would be a vote for Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Reiterating that the YSRC, TRS and the BJP had hatched a mega-conspiracy to damage Andhra Pradesh, Mr Naidu said, “Andhra voters should decide whether they need KCR or Naidu.”
The TD would go to the polls with the slogan “Your future my responsibility” and “Andhra self respect and pride”.
Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, Mr Naidu said these polls were for Andhra pride. “Who are you (KCR)? You said you will give me a return gift. If you give me one return gift I can give you 100 return gifts. Does Andhra need the rule of Telangana doralu,” he asked.
Mr Naidu asked Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy to get in writing from Mr Chandrasekhar Rao that the Telangana state government would support the grant of special category status for AP. He alleged that Mr Rao would be sending '1,000 crore to Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy to spend on the polls in AP. He asked TD cadres to be alert as the YSRC would distribute money indiscrimately that was sent by Mr Rao.
He said that Mr Rao had abused him, and Mr Reddy was working like a slave to the TRS. He said that both the Telangana government and the Centre had turned into “terrorists” and had started attacking him. He had only questioned the Centre and the Telangana state government on behalf of the Andhra Pradesh people. “For this, my associates and I are being attacked,” he said.
Mr Naidu said that Mr Reddy who had refused to shift to Andhra Pradesh in the last five years and was doing politics from his Lotus Pond residence at Hyderabad did not have any right to seek votes in Andhra Pradesh. He claimed that Mr Reddy’s disproportionate assets cases were presented as a paper in Harvard University in the United States.
Mr Naidu said the Telangana government had had not come forward for dividing the assets as specified in the bifurcation act.
