Jagan plays BC card in Kuppam, says Naidu used them for his political gain

On his maiden visit to Oppn. leader’s home turf, CM lambasts TDP chief for ‘failing to develop’ the region

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the Telugu Desam Party national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, despite his 45 years of political life and being Chief Minister for 14 years, had only squeezed the backward classes for his political mileage but kept boasting about social justice.

Addressing a public meeting in connection with the launch of the III phase of the YSR Cheyutha scheme at Animiganipalle in the Kuppam Assembly constituency on Friday, the Chief Minister termed Mr. Naidu as a “non-local” to Kuppam, and a local of Hyderabad, who had neither a house nor a vote in Kuppam.

During his maiden visit to Mr. Naidu’s bastion, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy repeatedly referred to his political rival as “Peddamanishi” in a sarcastic tone, while terming himself as “Mee Bidda” (your son).

Though Mr. Naidu knew that the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi branch canal alone could bail out the farmers and public of the Kuppam region from scarcity of irrigation and drinking water, he thought the project was a big obstacle to his political hegemony, he said. “Naidu always makes tall claims that he was the ringmaster who could select Prime Ministers and Presidents in New Delhi, but it is ridiculous that the water taps in Kuppam have no water. Only at the fag end of 2019, Mr. Naidu initiated the canal works for getting commissions from contract works given to his party cadres,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

Ever since the launch of the Telugu Desam Party in 1982, not even once a candidate from the Backward Classes was fielded in Kuppam, which has a large BC population. “Everyone knows how Naidu backstabbed N.T. Rama Rao after showing false love. The same thing he is doing for the people of Kuppam and the backward classes. Naidu has become the ‘care of address’ for bogus votes and backstabbing,” Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

He alleged that Mr. Naidu during his tenure as the Chief Minister had resorted to large-scale corruption in the name of water supply through hundreds of tankers and showing fake accounts. The Kuppam municipality had no double roads, no government colleges, and no employment for thousands of youth. “After 2019, the people of Kuppam chose to vote for the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes. This led to the sweeping victory of the YSRCP in civic bodies and local bodies’ elections here,” the Chief Minister said, taking credit for making Kuppam a municipality and a revenue division as well, which was pending for 55 years.

Saying that he would treat Kuppam on a par with the Pulivendula constituency, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said during the last 39 months the YSRCP government had spent ₹1,149 crore in the Kuppam region for the DBT and Non-DBT schemes, largely benefitting the women’s groups.