Naidu challenges Jagan to show his strength

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Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday challenged YSR Congress party leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to submit to the governor a list of Congress legislators supporting him and said his party was ready to back the no-confidence motion against the Andhra Pradesh government.

Inaugurating the 30th 'mahanadu' or annual convention of the party at Gandipet on the city's outskirts, the former chief minister said Jagan, as Reddy is popularly called, should first demonstrate his strength by submitting to the governor a list of legislators backing him. "If the governor asks the government to seek a vote of confidence, the TDP will then vote against the government," said Naidu while responding to Jaganmohan Reddy's criticism of his party for not bringing a no-confidence motion against the Congress government.

Naidu said those who repeatedly threatened to bring down the government should take the initiative towards this. He recalled Jagan's statement that the government was at his mercy. The leader of opposition dismissed Jagan's allegation of a match-fixing between the TDP and the Congress government. "The TDP is ready to bring a no-confidence motion against the government over farmers' issues," he said and recalled that TDP had tabled a similar motion against Jagan's father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy too.

During his marathon inaugural speech, the TDP leader targeted Jagan by saying that he floated the YSR Congress party only because the Congress refused to make him the chief minister following his father's death in a chopper crash. Naidu described the Congress as "a poisonous tree" and the YSR Congress as its branch. He alleged that Jagan made crores of rupees when his father was the chief minister. He did not even spare YSR, blaming him for corruption during his six-year-rule.

Naidu lashed out at Congress leadership for shielding YSR and said all the allegations of corruption against him should be probed as is being done in 2G Spectrum, Commonwealth Games and other scams. On the victory of Jagan in the recent by-elections to the Lok Sabha from Kadapa constituency, Naidu said sympathy factor, money and "rowdyism" helped him. "Even in that situation, we fought well and I congratulate the party workers for the same," he said.