GUNTUR: "I was an honourable man until my father was alive, my father was also an honourable man until he was alive as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh," YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy said in an exclusive interview to NDTV, in response to a question on the dozens of pending cases of corruption filed against him over the past decade.
Mr Reddy claimed the cases against him were filed because he broke up with the Congress after his father's death in 2009 in a helicopter crash, and formed his own party. He said the cases, filed at the time of the UPA government at the centre, were "politically motivated" with petitioners being "Congress and TDP politicians."
Mr Reddy was speaking to NDTV during the course of a padyatra to demand special status for Andhra Pradesh, something he claims Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, an NDA ally, has failed to deliver.
Mr Naidu's party, which has withdrawn its ministers from the centre, has alleged that Mr Reddy's agitation is at the behest of the BJP, in exchange for central laxity on the cases against him.
But Mr Reddy told NDTV that the centre was going soft on Mr Naidu who, he alleges, is embroiled in corruption.
"We have a CM who is blatantly involved in corruption in Andhra. Nothing is spared by him - from sand to mud to liquor to power and coal. His only exemption is that the central government link he has", he said.
As further proof to rebut claims of a backroom deal with the BJP, Mr Reddy says he is determined to go ahead with a no-confidence motion against the centre in the ongoing session of parliament, in protest against the refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh.
"I have given my MP's an ultimatum", he said.
Source: NDTV
