YSR Congress Party honorary president Y.S. Vijayamma on Friday requested voters to give her son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy a chance to restore the ‘Rajanna Rajyam’ in the State.
“Like Rajanna, my son will always keep his word. Let us take Andhra Pradesh back to its glory, with benefits of welfare schemes reaching all on a saturation basis as during the erstwhile YSR regime,” Ms. Vijayamma said after listing the YSRCP’s Navaratnalu poll promises which she said would cover all sections of society.
Ms. Vijayamma addressed a spree of rallies on Friday at Kandukur, Kanigiri and Markapur constituencies in a whirlwind tour of Prakasam district.
“Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu has failed to implement any of the 600-odd promises he made at the time of elections. With what face is he approaching people for votes?” Ms. Vijayamma asked.
“The YSRCP should win all 25 MP seats so that the State gets Special Category Status (SCS) and other benefits due to it from the Centre, regardless of who becomes the Prime Minister,” she said.
‘U-turns’ on SCS
The YSRCP matriarch said that it was her son who had been consistently agitating for SCS, unlike Mr. Naidu who she alleged was in the habit of making ‘U-turns’ at the drop of a hat, referring to the TDP being in an alliance with the BJP earlier and now aligning with the Congress.
The YSRCP leader said Mr. Naidu had painted the YSRCP and Congress with the same brush in 2014, despite the YSRCP facing numerous problems after breaking away from the Congress in the form of several “politically motivated cases foisted on Jagan”.
‘Why no CBI probe?’
Questioning why the State Government was not agreeing to an independent probe into the murder of her brother-in-law Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, she asked, “Is it a crime to demand a CBI probe? Mr. Naidu did not even show the basic courtesy of condoling Vivekananda Reddy’s death.” She added that her husband had called on Mr. Naidu after the Alipiri attack and had reassured him by saying that he had survived due to God’s grace.
Ms. Vijayamma also recalled that YSR had unhesitatingly agreed for a CBI investigation into the murder of TDP leader Paritala Ravindra, and had declared that he would allow his son to be hanged if he was found to be involved in the murder.