Ministers raise pitch against Pawan

Amaravati: Ministers came down heavily on Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan over his remarks during an interview to a news channel against Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister K E Krishna Murthy on Monday said Pawan was making baseless allegations and was reading out script prepared by others. 

“Pawan is criticising the Chief Minister and his family without producing any evidence. We are demanding Pawan to reveal the evidence in support of his allegations regarding Polavaram Project. Our government will take action if there was any corruption or irregularities in execution of project works,” he said.

Stating that Pawan is a part-time politician, Krishna Murthy questioned why he changed his stand on Special Category Status (SCS) issue. “Pawan announced at a public meeting that he would go on fast unto death for the sake of SCS to AP and also stated he would garner support of MPs of opposition parties in New Delhi. Then, why is he indulging in politics here when the TDP MPs were fighting with Centre in Parliament for SCS,” he asked. 

TDP State president and Minister for Energy Kala Venkata Rao also ridiculed Pawan stating that the TDP government was not looking for marks to be allotted by him. Minister for Industries N Amaranatha Reddy asked why Pawan Kalyan took a U-turn on the issue of Special Category Status.  

“Pawan discribed the special package as a “stale laddu”. Now he is saying it doesn’t matter whether the State gets the tag of Special Category Status or not and financial help from the Centre is more important,” the Minister said.

Amaranatha Reddy alleged that the BJP was behind Pawan Kalyan and guiding him to speak against the interests of State. He demanded the Pawan should explain to people on his U-turn on SCS issue.

Minister for Mines R V Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao said Pawan was reading out BJP’s script to criticise the Chief Minister and suggested that the Jana Sena chief should speak with clarity on major issues. “People are surprised to see Pawan Kalyan critisicing the Chief Minister instead of fighting against the Centre,” the Minister said.