“Wolves are ganging up to harm my pro-people regime,” Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy thundered in a caustic reference to the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance here at a massive election rally on Tuesday.
Participating in the ‘Memantha Siddham’ election campaign meeting at Madanapalle town, Mr. Jagan said he was “seeking re-election with full self-confidence, having fulfilled 99% of promises made in my manifesto, which the party considers sacrosanct”.
“A student who has scored 99 marks in a test will not be under any stress for the next exams. On the other hand, there is a candidate who has not scored even 10 marks. Will he even pass?” Mr. Jagan remarked, with the reference to TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu hard to miss.
Stating that the State government had directly transferred benefits to the tune of ₹2.70 lakh crore to the public, Mr. Jagan said his request for another term is only to continue the good work and “further strengthen the hands of my sisters”. All the money was sent directly to the women, with no pilferage or commission, he insisted.
Lists achievements
Drawing parallels between his ‘welfare-oriented’ government and the previous TDP regime, the YSRCP president wondered if the people could recollect any such scheme ever being rolled out by the TDP government in the past.
“We introduced village secretariats, volunteers, pensions, good governance, village clinics, Aarogya Suraksha and English-medium education. In contrast, the moment you utter Naidu’s name, you are reminded of scams, not schemes,” he said.
Coming down heavily on the TDP-BJP-JSP alliance, Mr. Jagan recalled how the trio, back in 2014, had sent their party manifesto in the form of pamphlets to every doorstep, promising that the new government’s first task would be to waive off farm loans and DWCRA (self-help group) loans. Sadly, those promises were never fulfilled,” Mr. Jagan remarked.
