Lokesh demands action on YSRC for distributing Tirumala laddus to voters
VIJAYAWADA: Telugu Desam national general secretary and MLC, Nara Lokesh, on Friday accused the YSRC leaders of misusing the sacred laddus of the Tirumala hill temple as enticement to voters in the panchayat elections.
This showed Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party leaders have no respect for the people as well as the God of the Seven Hills, Lokesh said and urged the State Election Commission (SEC) to disqualify a ruling party supported candidate who allegedly offered the Tirumala laddus as “inducement” to the voters.
Lokesh said a large number of Sri Vari laddus were distributed by ruling party leaders along with the voter slips in Thondavada Panchayat in Chandragiri assembly segment. “This had an ulterior motive to win over voters along religious lines, but the YSRC forgot the fact that Tirumala laddus are looked at with a lot of respect by Hindu devotees.”
He stated that at a time when pilgrims were struggling hard to get laddus atop the Seven Hills, thousands of these laddus were finding their way into the hands of YSRC leaders. Lokesh pleaded with the SEC that action be initiated against the staff of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams on this count.
Lokesh said a case should be filed against YSRC leaders for their “show of disrespect to God by illegally transporting these laddus in a ration delivery vehicle, violating the election code, and for caste discrimination”.
Meanwhile, Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas alias Nani alleged that Chief Minister Jagan came into power with support of Muslim votes but he cheated the Muslim community by supporting the NRC and CAA legislations in Parliament. He, with other TD leaders, conducted the election campaign in 50, 51 and 56 divisions of Vijayawada city on Friday.
MP Nani said he did not support the CAA and NRC bills and came out of Parliament without giving his vote for the “black bills”. Besides this, he said, he toured the whole of AP state in a campaign against the CAA and NRC. He promised to work for protection of the rights of the Muslim community.
Nani alleged that the YSRC government totally failed in the past 20 months in providing good governance and put a huge financial burden on the people through abnormal increase in taxes. “Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is an autonomous body. Hence, there is no dependence on the state government for development. TD developed Vijayawada city and did the construction of the Durga and Benz flyovers.”
The MP said development was the agenda of the TD and appealed to people to support the party in the VMC elections to ensure faster development of the city.
Meanwhile, state minister for endowment Vellampalli Srinivas Rao predicted that Telugu Desam would perish in AP state due to the “severe opposition” of the people to the yellow party. The minister visited various areas of his Vijayawada East constituency on Friday and interacted with locals.
Minister Srinivas Rao said the gram panchayat election results demonstrated the support of the people to the YSRC. He alleged that the TD and the BJP were colluding to create trouble for the YSRC government but the people supported Chief Minister Jagan as he was fulfilling election promises without fail.
Minister Srinivas Rao said that Jagan fulfilled the promise of construction of a new chariot for the Antarvedi temple and commissioned the new chariot. He recalled that Jagan asked for a CBI probe into the Antarvedi temple chariot burning case but the BJP government did not give its consent.
Refuting the allegations of BJP leaders on the Antarvedi chariot burning incident, the minister questioned the BJP leaders as to why they did not ask the Modi government at the Centre for a CBI probe into this.
