YSR Congress honorary president Y.S. Vijayalakshmi, who held a deeksha for weavers at Sircilla in Karimnagar district on Monday, focused mainly on her son, Kadapa MP Jagan Mohan Reddy, and also on welfare schemes initiated by the YSR government including Arogyasri, Jalayagnam, packages for weavers and farmers, the fee reimbursement for students so that they could become “collectors, doctors and engineers” etc. Cries of “Johar YSR”, “Jai Jagan” rent the air as Ms Vijayalakshmi said, “I have come here on the advice of Jagan babu (Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy) who is in jail. He asked me to take up your (weavers) problems. This government is heartless and inhuman. It was only N.T. Rama Rao and then Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy who did a lot for weavers.”
“Jagan Babu will come out from jail soon and take up your problems. He has been implicated falsely by Telugu Desam and the Congress. He will become the chief minister in 2014. He took up the weavers’ cause in Dharmavaram and he will come to you,” she added. Ms Vijayalakshmi also said that the untimely death of the “Mahaneta” (YSR) had landed the state in dire straits and added that her husband was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi and only wore “khaddar” (handloom) dhoti and shirt. “Once on a tour to the United States to attend an agriculture conference, he was advised to wear suit, but he refused. He also made it a rule for employees to wear handloom cloth,” she said.
Ms Vijayalakshmi promised Rs 700 as pension to weavers, Rs 1,000 to families of two children and other packages if YSR Congress formed the government. “Weavers in Andhra Pradesh are in deep trouble. They are migrating to Gujarat and Maharashtra due to lack of work. While the YSR government did not impose a single paisa of tax, the present government has burdened people with all kinds of taxes and power cuts,” she alleged.