Setting off on his ‘Vastunna Mekosam’ padayatra from Hindupur in Anantapur district on Tuesday, Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu said, “I am not forcing any one to join me. You should realise the harm caused by the Congress. The TD had provided an honest and vibrant government. If you want your lives to be better, if you want jobs, if you want good administration, you have to support the TD.”
“It’s not for any selfish motive or to become CM. You are in trouble and as a senior politician, I decided to meet you. Bless me and think apolitically,” he said. Mr Naidu asked people to seriously think about the Congress “destr-oying the state in all sph-eres, especially the agriculture and industrial sector, the severe power cuts, hike in petrol, diesel, ferti-liser prices, curbs on LPG cylinders, collapse of adm-inistration, price rise etc”.
He accused the Congress of trying to damage the TD with the support of the TRS and the YSR Congress. “Both parties are on the verge of a merger and the Congress is trying to damage the TD with their help,” he alleged. He added that the TD would have been in power in 2004 if it had not supported the BJP-led NDA and in 2009 if the Praja Rajyam was not born. “We will never support communal parties,” he said.
Apart from the Sugur Anjaneya Swamy temple, where he prayed along with wife Bhuvaneshw-ari, son Lokesh and brother-in-law and MP N. Harikrishna, Mr Naidu also also offered prayers at a mosque and a church. Songs with the lyrics “Adi adigo Chandrababu vastunnadu... vastunnadu mekosam” (Look there, Chandrababu is coming for you) rent the air as Mr Naidu began his walk from the temple while jubilant party workers threw flower petals.