TDP General Secretary and Minister Nara Lokesh has shot back at YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy over his provocative statement about Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan. At the media point during the Assembly, Lokesh came back at Jagan, saying Jagan is one person who defines arrogance and remained away from people even when in office and subsequently even after electoral loss.
In a swipe at Jagan’s remark about Pawan Kalyan, Lokesh underlined YSRCP’s colossal decline in the last elections while highlighting Janasena’s substantial increase. He asserted that trying to bring down Pawan Kalyan would not alter the people’s mandate, which had outright rejected Jagan’s rule.
Regarding the issue of opposition status, Lokesh reminded that Andhra Pradesh people categorically refused YSRCP the position of the primary opposition. He clarified that a party needs to win at least 10% of Assembly seats in order to be considered as the opposition. Since YSRCP was brought down to mere 11 seats, Lokesh insisted that Jagan should reflect rather than raise unsubstantiated allegations.
Meanwhile, YS Jagan, in his media interaction at Tadepalli on Wednesday, sparked controversy by deriding Pawan Kalyan as “greater than a corporator but smaller than an MLA.” He was sarcastic when he said that if opposition status were to be awarded on the basis of vote share, then Pawan Kalyan must “go to Germany.”
The comments have attracted sharp responses from both TDP and Janasena, increasing the political fight in Andhra Pradesh further.