'Have My Star Campaigners From Poor Households': Jagan Reddy Says YSRCP To Go It Alone In LS Polls

Referring to the BJP, Jagan Reddy alleged that a national party is in the pocket of Chandrababu Naidu and all of them are ready to attack the future of poor people in Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

New Delhi: Close on the heels of the TDP, the Janasena and the BJP forging an alliance, YSRCP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday said he doesn't have tie-up with any party and is going to the polls alone with the support of 'star' campaigners from poor households.

Addressing a massive public meeting here - 'Siddham' (ready)- in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state, the Chief Minister compared himself to Arjuna and the people to Sri Krishna from the epic 'Mahabharatha' in the 'Kurukshetra' battle (polls) between justice and injustice.

"I don't have alliances with various parties, I am going to the polls alone and what I have is many star campaigners from poor households," Reddy said, addressing the meeting.

According to the CM, he does not have 10 star campaigners like TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu or a host of media houses to back him and propagate lies.

Referring to the BJP, Reddy alleged that a national party is in the pocket of Naidu and all of them are ready to attack the future of poor people in the southern state.

He ridiculed the opposition parties like the TDP, Janasena and BJP and said they were akin to commanders without armies.

Reddy noted that some of these parties failed to garner as many votes as NOTA while some bifurcated united Andhra Pradesh for their selfish interests.

Asserting that Naidu is failing to run his party, Reddy said he was compelled to take Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan to New Delhi and wait for days together to seal the alliance.

Further, he said a person like Naidu, who had claimed that he played an instrumental role in choosing prime ministers and presidents at one time was unable to stand up against the ruling YSRCP.

Calling this a desperate move by Naidu, he questioned why would the opposition leader need an alliance if he (Naidu) thought that Jagan did not fulfil his promises.

Reddy claimed that the TDP chief joined hands with Janasena because Kalyan would neither ask for the driver's seat nor fight for more seats for his party to contest.

He reminded that the tripartite alliance of BJP, TDP and Janasena had contested the 2014 polls together but failed to implement their promises such as farm loan waiver, three cents land to eligible people, BC sub-plan and others.

As the YSRCP is saying 'siddham' (ready) after doing good to all households, half a dozen opposition parties have ganged up with the support of a similar number of yellow media houses to scheme for political one-upmanship, he alleged.

Questioning these parties if they had given special category status to Andhra Pradesh, the CM observed that they are doing the same alliance drama to cheat people.

Stating that he pressed the direct benefit transfer (DBT) disbursing button 130 times in the past five years to dole out Rs 2.7 lakh crore and also large amounts on non-DBT welfare, Reddy said he distributed welfare at the rate of Rs 75,000 crore per annum and called on the beneficiaries to be his star campaigners.

Contrasting TDP's and its allies' promises, Reddy said that they promised welfare schemes worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore per annum and quizzed how Naidu will manage the funds.

Further, Reddy alleged that Naidu's new election manifesto is a melange of copied promises from other states' manifestos and the super six TDP election promises exceed the state budget by Rs 73,000 crore, excluding the opposition party's latest promise of Rs 4,000 per month pension to BCs.

Moreover, he called on the beneficiaries of his schemes to campaign for him to make another 100 people vote for him to continue his welfare regime.

Meanwhile, police sources told PTI that one person who came to attend the meeting died while returning as he fell from a bus and hit his head against a stone. Police said the deceased person was in an inebriated state.

(This report has been published as part of an auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)