State Transport Minister Botsa Satyanarayana on Friday found fault with Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu for starting an indefinite hunger strike, and described it as a mere 'farce' with an ulterior motive to capture the farmers' vote bank.
Speaking to media persons at the Secretariat on Friday, the minister compared Naidu's efforts to crocodile tears to woo the farmers and capture power.
"There is a difference in what he is doing and what we are doing," Satyanarayana said.
Whereas the Congress government was putting the best foot forward to mitigate the sufferings of the poor tenant farmers who were reeling under the losses, Naidu undertook the fast only to highlight his actions to be in the good books of the farmers, Satyanarayana stated.
When asked about the former MP from Kadapa Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's taking up his whirlwind tour and then starting a stir against the government, the minister said that "it has become a fashion to go on hunger srike nowadays".
Criticising the TDP rule, Satyanarayana pointed out that their rule was restricted to a radius of 10 km in the city.
The minister made light of his hunger strike saying that Naidu did not think of solutions to the various problems faced by tenant farmers and labourers when he was the Chief Minister, but organised surprise checks in rural areas which yielded no results, and did not benefit the farmers in any way.
Satyanarayana said that Naidu lost the 2009 elections mainly because of non-performance.
Let Naidu offer constructive criticism instead of slinging mud at the ruling Congress, Satyanarayana said.
Asked about the 9-hour uninterrupted free power supply to farmers as promised by former Chief Minister, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the minister shot back replying that they were implementing it depending on the supply position, and there was still 3 years' time for standing by the Congress manifesto of 2009.
"We are determined to implement all the welfare schemes that were started by YSR," he said.