Telugu Desam Party MLA Payyavula Keshav on Tuesday challenged YSR Congress Party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy to back his allegations that TDP party president N Chandrababu Naidu had said that agriculture was a ‘wasteful’ exercise, by providing sufficient proof.
Talking to media persons at NTR Trust Bhavan, Mr Keshav said that though former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had levelled such an allegation against Mr Chandrababu Naidu, he had never been able to pinpoint where Mr Naidu has made such a statement.
Now, after the death of YSR, his son was levelling the same allegations against the TDP chief, without providing proof as to where the statement was made, the TDP MLA charged.
“Mr Jaganmohan Reddy must back his allegations with proof. Just attributing a statement will not suffice,” Mr Keshav said.
The TDP MLA was reacting to the criticism levelled by Mr Jaganmohan Reddy at the conclusion of the 48-hour Rythu Deeksha held at Guntur. Mr Jaganmohan Reddy had lashed out at the TDP chief and had claimed that Mr Naidu’s efforts for farmers’ welfare were nothing but attempts to gain political mileage.
Responding to Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s charges, Mr Keshav said that the Kadapa MP was himself attempting to gain political respectability by using the farmers’ woes as an excuse to further his political career.
The TDP MLA said that the reality was that both the YSR Congress and the ruling Congress are two sides of the same coin and have in fact ganged up to berate the TDP. He added that the Congress and Mr Jaganmohan Reddy have evidently entered into a secret alliance to weaken the TDP.
“By continually berating the TDP, they assume that the party will be weakened. This will not happen. They may have entered into a secret pact but truth will prevail,” Mr Keshav said.