Rejected by people, Chandrababu Naidu distorts poll results: Gadikota Srikanth Reddy

Tadepalli: Government chief whip Gadikota Srikanth Reddy slammed Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu for spreading fake news on panchayat poll results, though TDP was rejected by the people in Panchayat polls.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here on Tuesday, he said that the TDP has secured less than 15 per cent of the seats but the TDP members are distorting the numbers and trying to divert people attention ahead of municipal polls. YSRCP has been officially displaying the details of the candidates won with the support of the party on its website including their pictures, he said and challenged Naidu to reveal real numbers. The MLA said that people rejected the TDP in 2019 and those who have voted then have realised their mistake and shifted to YSRCP as welfare schemes reached all sections of people.

He said that Naidu does not have the courage to admit defeat and is making shameless arguments alleging that counting was done in the dark and shifting stance on SEC.

On Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), Srikanth Reddy said that Palla Srinivas Rao who was on fast was taken to hospital on humanitarian grounds as he was recently recovered from Covid and criticised Naidu for politicising the issue. He challenged Naidu to send his son Lokesh or MVVS Murthy's grandson to sit on a hunger strike instead of Palla. He questioned why Naidu was silent on privatisation of the VSP between 2014 and 2019, while in the NDA which brought forward the privatisation plan.

Naidu has no moral right to speak in Visakhapatnam or set his foot in the city that he opposed as executive capital. He said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to drop privatisation plans, but Naidu on the other hand was afraid of writing to the Prime Minister fearing that he would be in trouble. During TDP term, Naidu had privatised 54 public sector companies and even tried to put the APSRTC on sale. Unlike Naidu, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy merged the RTC with the government and put it back in profits. He assured that the State government will go to any extent to save the VSP.