Vijayawada/Kurnool: Comments by TD leader and Rajya Sabha member, T.G. Venkatesh that TD and Jana Sena should have a pact created a flutter on Wednesday. The comments even saw angry reactions from both TD supremo, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena chief, Pawan Kalyan. Mr Naidu distanced himself saying that they were Venkatesh’s personal opinion.
Mr Venkatesh, who was in Amaravati, told reporters that there was nothing wrong in having a tie-up between the TD and Jana Sena and leaders from both the parties were open to it. He said that there were no major differences between both the parties except that Pawan Kalyan found fault with the way Mr Naidu had dealt with the Centre initially without fighting with it on realising the implementation of bifurcation issues including Special Category Status. He said Naidu’s approach of fighting with the Centre was different.
He wished that both Jana Sena and TD came together before the upcoming polls.
Drawing an analogy from Uttar Pradesh politics where bitter rivals Mayawati (BSP) and Akhilesh Yadav (SP) had patched up differences to defeat a common enemy BJP, Mr Venkatesh said that such a possibility was a certainty in Andhra Pradesh and discussions towards this end may commence in March.
Sharply reacting to Mr Venkatesh’s comments, Mr Pawan Kalyan in Paderu asked the TD Rajya Sabha member to “stop talking nonsense”. He said Mr Venkatesh could become a Rajya Sabha member as it was given away by Jana Sena.
Mr Pawan Kalyan rejected outright any possibility of his party working with the TD. He lashed out at Mr Venkatesh over alleged environmental violations.
Mr Naidu, on his part, gave a stern warning to Mr Venkatesh asking him to maintain restraint while making public statements especially of his personal opinion. He added that such comments would only create confusion among the cadre.
But YSRC leader Vasireddy Padma said that T.G. Venkatesh’s remarks were well thought out and had the endorsement of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
