Naidu, also Leader of the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh assembly, told mediapersons before embarking on the survey, that corrupt politicians like Gali Janardhan Reddy should be expelled from politics. “It is because of our six-year-long fight that the CBI has undertaken investigation into Gali’s illegal mining,” he said.

He attributed the alleged plunder of iron ore to the nexus between Janardhan Reddy and former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. Naidu said Janardhan Reddy’s prediction of the TDP’s total rout in the state has not come true. “The  person is now cooling his heels in jail,” Naidu ridiculed. In 2009, Chandrababu Naidu had appealed to then chief minister K Rosaiah to initiate stringent action against the Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) for “blatantly violating norms” and mining in Ananthapur district. In a strongly worded letter to the chief minister, Naidu described the attack on a Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) near Obulapuram mines, allegedly by the OMC staff, as an unprecedented incident.

Naidu pointed out that the DFO had exposed the OMC’s violation of the Forest Act and sought cancellation of the company’s lease to mine in an area of three kilometres in Ananthapur district. “You are aware that the TDP  has been waging a relentless battle since 2004 against the collusion of the then leaders at the helm of affairs with the owners of the OMC to the detriment of public interest,” Naidu said.