Vivekananda justifies his exit from Congress

Former Congress minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy on Saturday stated that he had quit from the Congress party as he was unable to tolerate the targeting of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who brought the Congress party to power in the State twice.

Talking to media persons, Vivekananda Reddy accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi of becoming a 'mute spectator' despite the senior Congress leaders slanging mud on the departed leader YSR. “The senior leaders, who lauded YSR's welfare schemes and programmes, are now leveling baseless charges against YSR and damaging his image among the people,” he stated.

Stating that YSR has always worked for the welfare of poor and middle class people, he said that all financial decisions regarding the schemes were taken collectively by the YSR Cabinet. “The entire Cabinet of YSR should be held responsible for the collective decisions,” he pointed out.

Unlike the present government, he said that the State was financially sound during YSR's regime and did not impose any fresh taxes burdening the common people. Stating that the government has failed to focus its attention on the implementation of welfare schemes, he said the development in the State was affected as the government was concentrating more on politics.