Tirupati bypoll is a referendum, declares minister

NELLORE: With just six days left for the byelection to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, political parties have started challenging each other on one issue or another to keep up the poll tempo. The latest is panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy’s offer to opposition Telugu Desam to treat the byelection as a referendum.

“Our 21 members of parliament will put in their papers if YSRC loses Tirupati LS by-poll. Are your MPs ready to resign if we win the election,” the minister questioned TD.

Reacting to opposition leader Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s remark on YSR Congress failing to get Special Category Status for AP from the Centre, Ramachandra Reddy retorted whether that TD MPs had done so when their party was in power.

Speaking to media persons in Tirupati on Sunday, the minister said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has put off his election campaign in Tirupati in view of a sharp increase in number of Coronavirus positive cases in Chittoor district.

He expressed confidence that YSR Congress will win the byelection on the basis of welfare programmes introduced by the Chief Minister for downtrodden within the state.

“Benefits of these programmes have even reached doorsteps of beneficiaries in the state,” Ramachandra Reddy pointed out. He underlined that thousands of crores have been earmarked for completion of irrigation projects in Rayalaseema on a war footing.