YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy scored a political point over his arch rival Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the TDP’s own turf in Krihsna district on Monday.
Jaganmohan Reddy deliberately scheduled his Praja Sankalpam padayatra in Nimmakuru village, the birthplace of legendary actor and TDP founder N T Rama Rao.
He interacted with NTR’s distant relatives in the village and also his followers to drive home the point that the village was totally neglected by Naidu, who had ditched not only NTR, but also his birthplace.
And Jagan made a sudden announcement saying if YSRC was voted to power, he would name Krishna district as “Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao District,” after the late chief minister.
“NTR is the son of the soil. But the village of founder president of TDP has been neglected and has become a nucleus of scam more so after Lokesh has adopted the village,” Jagan said.
He announced that he would take up all round development in the popular village which gave the state an illustrious leader.
Some of the villagers, who are close relatives of NTR, complained that they were subjected to hardships. Close relatives of NTR’s wife Basavatarakam had been harassed and were taken to police stations on a land issue near Machlipatnam, they said.
The TDP leaders were taken aback by this sudden surprise from Jagan.
TDP ministers Kala Venkat Rao, Kollu Ravindra and K Achen Naidu alleged that Jagan was trying to hoodwink the people with such promises and divert their attention from Naidu’s deeksha at Tirupati.
“Why has he not raised the demand of naming Krishna district as NTR district in the last four years? And what locus standi does he have to talk about NTR?” they asked.
