Union Minister of Tourism G. Kishan Reddy has exuded the confidence that the BJP-Jana Sena Party (JSP) combine will form the government in Andhra Pradesh in 2024.
Mr. Kishan Reddy was addressing a public meeting, ‘Rayalaseema Ranabheri’, largely attended by the activists of the alliance parties from across Rayalaseema and south coastal districts, here on Saturday.
Attributing the “backwardness, poverty, and unemployment” in the Rayalaseema region to the “utter negligence and exploitation of the backward classes” by the regional parties, which were steeped in “family politics,” Mr. Kishan Reddy said most of the Chief Ministers who were at the helm in the State before and after its bifurcation, were from Rayalaseema. But, they had done nothing for the development of the region, he alleged.
When the YSRCP had come to power in 2019 by winning 151 seats in the Assembly, there was an air of hope that it would give a fillip to the development of the State, but Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had pushed Andhra Pradesh into a debt trap.
Instead of devising schemes to eradicate backwardness and poverty in the State, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was desperately searching for debts. “I want to know from Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy as to what he has done for the State in the last three years,” Mr. Kishan Reddy said.
Lauds Modi
Listing the initiatives undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development of Andhra Pradesh, the Union Minister said that the Polavaram irrigation project was taken up with Central funds. The Centre had granted ₹18,000 crore for the development of national highways in the State. It was providing ₹6,000 per month to each farmer.
It was Mr. Modi who had salvaged the country from the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. “Thanks to Mr. Modi’s policy, free ration rice is being provided to more than 80 crore people in the country for the last two years,” the Union Minister said.
Advising the people of Andhra Pradesh to desist from supporting the YSRCP government, Mr. Kishan Reddy said, “If the YSRCP continues to be in power, the State will collapse economically under the weight of debts. Consequently, the government employees will not be given their salaries, educational institutions will be closed, and irrigation works will be shelved once and for all.”
Mr. Kishan Reddy said the BJP was always in the forefront to drive away “family politics” in the country.
He further alleged that the YSRCP government had become synonymous with liquor, sand, and red sanders mafia. Mr. Kishan Reddy also accused the YSRCP government with harassing the opposition party leaders. “The BJP-JSP will soon put an end to family politics,” he said.
