TDP Holds Rally Before AP Assembly Over Cheap Liquor

TDP legislators led by party national general secretary Nara Lokesh on Monday took out a rally outside the Andhra Pradesh Assembly demanding the elimination of all harmful cheap liquor brands from the state.

The legislators held placards and raised slogans like "kalthi saara CM down down" and "naatu saara CM down down".

They also did a "madyabhishekam" (pouring cheap J-liquor) to a photo of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for committing a "multi-crore liquor fraud" at the cost of innocent lives.

The legislators also demanded a judicial inquiry into the liquor deaths, and that all illicit liquor dens be eliminated.

Stringent action should be taken against the YSRCP leaders who were running these liquor dens, they demanded. The Chief Minister and his coterie were amassing thousands of crores through the sale of the J-brand liquor at the state level, and the local YSRCP leaders were making quick money by selling illicit liquor that was killing innocent people, they alleged.

The TDP lawmakers also raised slogans against the Chief Minister's failure to implement his promise of phased prohibition.

"Jagan Mohan Reddy promised in the elections that he would prohibit liquor in order to safeguard the lives of the women of the state. After coming to power, however, he started increasing liquor sales every year for the huge liquor commissions that are flowing into the Tadepalli treasury," they claimed.

Decrying the government's "lies and betrayals", the TDP MLAs and MLCs asked how the ruling party could claim a fall in liquor sales when the state revenue from the same had increased manifold.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy regime was from the beginning flourishing by resorting to false propaganda and misinformation campaigns, they alleged.

The TDP legislators asserted that their agitation against the Jagan Mohan Reddy brands of liquor would continue till the government abandoned its adamant attitude.

TDP MLAs Nimmakayala Chinarajappa and Adireddy Bhavani, MLCs Chikkala Ramachandra Rao and Bachula Arjunudu, and others took part in the rally.