Vijayawada: Former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi has said that YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy would be made the Congress party’s chief ministerial candidate for 2019 if he rejoined the Congress.
The former Union minister was in the city to attend the meeting of the Dalit Outreach Sub-Committee as part of the birth anniversary celebrations of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Speaking to this newspaper, she said that she had made the offer on her own, as party general-secretary Digvijay Singh had spoken on the issue a few days. When Mr Singh was asked about inviting Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy back to the Congress, during his visit to Vijayawada on November 1, he had asked for the investigations against the YSRC chief to be completed first. “Then we will think of it,” he had said.
“Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy has mesmerised Dalits by hijacking the schemes of his father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, which were the schemes originated by the Congress for Dalits,” she said. She said the people know that the Congress has the legacy of Dr Rajasekhar Reddy and not Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy.
She accused the TD of “terrorising” Dalits. “The TD government is terrorising Dalits by stating that they would have to forego welfare schemes in case they do not support the TD,” Ms Lakshmi alleged.
