Vijayawada: Calling Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s comments on him “atrocious”, Telugu Desam supremo and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu strongly condemned them.
Mr Naidu said he followed value-based politics and always refrained from making any personal comments as Mr Rao had done on Saturday. He said he always maintained dignity and decorum in public life.
Terming the comments as “crass” and “not dignified”, Mr Naidu said no civil society accepts such remarks by a leader of Mr Rao’s stature.
Mr Naidu also dared Mr Rao on the vote for note case, saying he can also book cases like phone tapping. “If he books one case I can also book four cases,” said Mr Naidu.
He ridiculed Mr Rao’s claim that the entire nation has appreciated his Rythu Bandhu scheme and that it is ready to be implemented across the country. He said the growth of agriculture in Telangana state was way behind Andhra Pradesh. The four-year average growth of Telangana in the agriculture sector was two per cent while it was 11 per cent in Andhra Pradesh.
Talking to reporters after releasing a white paper on rural and urban infrastructure, Mr Naidu said he can’t be cowed down by blackmail in politics. He added that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Rao don’t like Andhra Pradesh to be developed and are targeting him. He said Mr Rao and Mr Modi criticise each other in public but in private they have a secret deal.
Mr Naidu also said that Mr Rao was frustrated with no tangible outcome of his meetings with the Chief Ministers of Odisha and West Bengal, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee respectively, on the supposed federal front and was making improper comments against him.
He added that Mr Rao, Mr Modi and YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy are all conspiring against Andhra Pradesh and targeting him. He termed Mr Rao as “Middle Modi” and Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy as “Junior Modi”.
The TD supremo said that Mr Modi did nothing for Gujarat during his 13-year tenure as the state chief minister and failed to create a knowledge economy.
Taking strong objection to Mr Rao calling him a rank opportunist, Mr Naidu recalled that Mr Rao had declared he would merge the TRS with the Congress if the latter granted statehood, but had made a U-turn later. He also said that though he was against giving majority seats to the TRS in 2009, Mr Rao had pleaded with him, and so the TD had given 44 seats to the TRS. He said in 2004, Mr Rao was with the Congress and in 2009 with the TD.
He said that Mr Rao alleged that he had snatched away the TD from its founder and his father-in-law N T Rama Rao, but Mr Rao had supported him when the incident took place. He recalled that Mr Rao had become a minister in his Cabinet only after the incident of usurping NTR took place.
Mr Naidu said that because he was denied a Cabinet berth, Mr Rao had walked out of the TD and started his own outfit. He said Mr Rao should not forget his origins.
He also said Mr Rao is most welcome to AP and have a truck with the YSRC and the BJP and even contest in the state in the upcoming polls. He assumed that Mr Rao and Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy were preparing the ground to contest in the Andhra Pradesh polls since Mr Rao has said he would write to Mr Modi asking for special category status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh.
On aligning with the Congress, Mr Naidu said that since the grand old party had openly assured that SCS would be given to Andhra Pradesh immediately after coming to power, setting aside all differences, they had joined hands.
He said the new secretariat of Andhra Pradesh will be the pride of Andhra Pradesh and a symbol of self-respect of Andhra people. He also took strong objection to Mr Rao saying he doesn’t know English and asked sarcastically if Mr Rao had studied at Oxford.
