"Naidu Wants Media Attention"

"For a political leader who had once described farming as a 'waste', the present indefinite hunger-strike, ostensibly to raise the farmers' issue, is nothing but a façade and is reflective of his chameleon-like instincts," said former MLA Bajireddy Govardhan Reddy on Sunday.

Bajireddy said that the only reason TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu launched his indefinite hunger strike was to pre-empt the mass 48-hour hunger strike announced by former Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. He said that Naidu had hijacked Jaganmohan Reddy's hunger-strike and made what was meant to be a show of solidarity into a political plank.

Echoing Bajireddy's words, former MLC H A Rahman said that Naidu had launched his fast on the spur of the moment because he knew that the political instability in the aftermath of the submission of the Justice Srikrishna Report on the future of the state would not let him get any media attention.

Rahman said that Naidu's shrewd timing was to take media attention away from the Jagan-camp. The former MLC alleged, "Mr. Naidu knows that once the Srikrishna Report comes out, the TDP will be wiped off from the Andhra Pradesh political scene. He is aware that his party has lost credibility in all the 3 regions of the state."

Bajireddy pointed out that it was former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who had taken it upon on himself to ease the sufferings of the farmers during the 9-year long TDP rule, first by organising a massive rally in Anantapur district and then embarking on a padayatra that change the face of the political horizon in the state.

The former MLA said that the Congress, after YSR's death, had again left the hapless farmers to fend for themselves. He added that Naidu has tried to seize the Congress misrule and neglect of the farmers to gain his lost prestige and, started to dream of coming back to power.

Bajireddy added that the only true picture in the state was the fact that the farmers in all the 3 regions in the state were looking for Jagan to come to their rescue.

Rahman added that the farmers, as well as the non-farming communities in the state, were sick of both the Congress and the TDP leaders, who were only interested in power at the cost of their interests. He prophesized that once Jagan announces his party the only opposition in Telangana region would be the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, while the party would be virtually unchallenged in the Seemandhra regions.

Courtesy: INN