Cong takes credit for development in AP

CM, PCC chief hold late YSR responsible for all scandals

Gulam Nabi Azad, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, in-charge of Andhra Pradesh affairs, lashed out at the family of former chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, thus changing the tone of the election campaign from shrill to hoarse.

The trio—Azad, Kiran Kumar Reddy and K Chiranjeevi, which has been campaigning relentlessly in Tirupati, Nellore and Ongole segments since Sunday, have carefully claimed full credit for various welfare schemes started by YSR, while distancing itself from the graft allegations linked to his tenure as the chief minister. YSR Reddy served as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh from 2004 to 2009.

“Welfare schemes such as zero interest to women self-help groups, free power to farmers, health insurance, etc... are of the Congress party. I was instrumental in getting Muslim reservations in Andhra Pradesh and the four per cent exclusive reservation, is in implementation only in AP,” Azad claimed during his campaign rally in Nellore. “I worked with YSR as state in-charge. Vijayamma is like my sister and Sharmila is like a daughter to me. But mind you, Vijayamma should have mended Jagan’s ways; he could have been the Union minister had he listened to Sonia Gandhi,” the Union Health minister said, leading to an angry retort from Vijayamma who was campaigning in Guntur district. She said that Jagan wouldn’t had to face corruption charges had he “surrendered to the dictates of Congress president and cancelled his Odarpu Yatra”.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and Chiranjeevi, are not shying away from holding YSR responsible for all the scandals that broke out in the state between 2004 and 2009.  “Jagan  forced YSR to sign several deals that have now ended up as scandals,” they alleged. But, Jagan-led YSR Congress leaders question why the welfare schemes weren’t being implemented anywhere else in the country, including Congress-ruled states, “if they were of the party and launched with the blessings of Sonia Gandhi.

“As long as my husband was alive, he was hailed as a role model in the country for introducing several welfare schemes for the poor. Now, he is being accused by the same Congress,” YSR’s widow laments. “It was the Health Ministry now headed by Azad that has in fact rejected the state government’s proposal to bear partial cost of the Arogya Sri Health Insurance scheme so that its scope could be enlarged,” YSRCP spokesperson Ambati Rambabu observed.

Meanwhile, K Chiranjeevi, Rajya Sabha member, asked, “If a petty thief is caught, and  people beat him after tying him to a tree. Jagan, who was caught stealing thousands of crores of rupees, says he should be released, is it right?”  

Political observers, however, feel that such a brazen expression of hatred towards a family so close to the hearts of at least certain sections of the voters in coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, might backfire on the Congress.