Taking the electoral battle to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s home turf, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday and declared Krishna Raghava Jayendra Bharath as YSRCP candidate against the former chief minister.
The YSRCP president appealed to the people of Kuppam to elect Bharath as MLA and promised to make him a minister.
“Vote for Bharath as Kuppam MLA. I will give him a ministerial position in my cabinet. Together, we vow to bring further development and welfare initiatives to the Kuppam constituency through him,” he said.
Bharath, a member of state Legislative Council, touched Jagan’s feet when the latter made the announcement, calling Bharath a leader of the weaker sections, Jagan said he did not secure victory in 2019, he served as MLC, to ensure effective governance over the past five years.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has never lost an election from Kuppam since 1989.
Addressing the public meeting at Gundisettipalle, Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged that Chandrababu Naidu failed to fulfil aspirations of locals and lost the right to represent Kuppam constituency.
The Chief Minister said that Naidu, who opted to contest from Kuppam after he lost in Chandragiri in 1983, has been a failed leader as he totally neglected the constituency though it elected him as MLA seven times.
He also remarked that Naidu is not worthy to be the Chief Minister. “Neither he owns a house in Kuppam nor did he give anything to the people of the constituency though they gave him everything and he neglected the Backward Classes who form the majority in Kuppam,” Jagan said.
While Naidu’s style of functioning was full of deception and backstabbing, Jagan said his administration revolved around the welfare of the people.
“The former chief minister has no single achievement to his credit despite holding the mantle thrice as chief minister,” he added.
The YSRCP chief said that as Naidu cannot claim to have implemented even a single welfare scheme, he has forged alliances with foster son and others and is ready to cheat people again with false promises and deceptive alliances.
He appealed to people not to be misled by the impracticable assurances.
If Naidu could not complete even the Kuppam Branch Canal during his 14 year stint, what he can do to the state, he questioned.
The Chief Minister listed out the slew of welfare and development programmes carried out in Kuppam constituency in the last 57 months and said the government has distributed Rs 1,899 crore to eligible beneficiaries in full transparency through various welfare schemes, with the DBT component being Rs 1,400 crore.
He said that Kuppam people have a special place in the heart of the government and 82,039 families out of the total 87,941 families in the constituency have received the Navaratnalu welfare benefits.
The Chief Minister was all praise for the Kuppam people saying that they had remained patient all these years though Naidu and his supporters blocked the efforts to establish the facilities of Vellore CMC Medical College and Hospital in Chittoor district. Naidu also pushed the Chittoor Dairy towards insolvency for selfish gains, he said, adding that it was only after YSRCP came to power that the Chittor Dairy took rebirth and the CMC hospital and college facilities came to the district.