GUNTUR: Describing former Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao as a man of self-discipline and fearless nature, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu said he is still unable to digest the way Kodela had died.
Participating in a commemoration meeting of Kodela organised by SSS College at Narasaraopet on Monday, the TDP chief unveiled the statue of the former Speaker. Speaking on the occasion, he hailed Kodela as ‘Palanati Puli’.
Squarely blaming YSRC for its ‘malicious’ propaganda against Kodela with regard to use of Assembly furniture, which drove him to suicide, the TDP chief said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is facing charges of amassing Rs 43,000 crore illegal wealth, has no moral right to comment on Kodela. “Jagan is playing politics with the help of police. When false cases were foisted against Kodela, I pacified him,” he recalled. Naidu said the former MLA of Narasaraopet since he became a public representative was focused on the development of his constituency.
Kotappakonda, Narasaraopet and Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital and Research Institute had achieved development due to the endeavour of Kodela. The TDP chief assured that the party would stand by Kodela’s family in this hour of grief. He slammed the ruling YSRC leaders for resorting to ‘intimidation’ and pressure tactics against TDP cadre.
He advised police officials to refrain from acting as per diktats of the ruling YSRC leaders. “They think by demolishing Praja Vedika, I will be afraid. I was not afraid even when 29 claymore mines were used against me by Naxalites at Alipiri. Let me warn all of them, we will not remain silent, if the atrocities against our party activists continue,” he thundered.
On Polavaram project, the former chief minister said it was ‘reserve tendering’ and not reverse tendering as claimed by the YSRC government. The TDP government had completed 70 per cent of Polavaram project works, he claimed.