From Free Bus Travel to 33% Quota; Naidu’s Poll Sops to Women Voters
TIRUPATI: Telugu Desam national president and former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has promised to provide free travel for women on state-run RTC buses across the state if his party-led alliance is voted back to power.
Addressing a women's gathering in Gudur on his 74th birthday on Saturday, Naidu declared that a prospective TD-Jana Sena-BJP coalition government will bear the entire cost of bus fares payable by female commuters, as part of TD’s agenda of comprehensive women's empowerment.
Citing the examples of Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman and former Tamil Nadu chief minister late J. Jayalalithaa, he said women are capable of holding the highest offices if given proper opportunities. He promised 33 per cent reservation for women in all legislative bodies.
The former chief minister assured that one nation-one election system of simultaneous LS and assembly polls will be implemented with reservations for women in place by 2029. "Only NDA will implement this progressive policy,” he maintained.
Hitting out at Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Naidu alleged that the YSRC regime has deceived all sections of society by not fulfilling promises like the job calendar and provision of employment. He also trained his guns on YSRC government over alleged indiscriminate and illegal exploitation of the state's natural silicon reserves, dubbing it a "sand mafia" indulging in unbridled plunder.
The TD chief promised that a monthly pension of ₹4,000 will be delivered at the beneficiaries' doorsteps once the NDA alliance is elected in Andhra Pradesh.
He addressed a series of public meetings as part of his ongoing “Prajagalam” yatra through Sarvepalli and Kandukur constituencies later in the day. Exuding confidence that the cash-rich but welfare-deficient YSRC regime will face a humiliating defeat, Naidu wondered how Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has "deceived his own sister", could be trusted to deliver justice and governance to people of the state.
The TD national president promised to revive employment opportunities across multiple sectors as well as restore the past glory of the aquaculture industry.
He dismissed YSRC's allegations of attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy as "drama" involving "axe, Kodi Katti and a small stone" to mislead the public.
Singling out senior YSRC minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy for a personal jibe, Naidu likened the Sarvepalli region to the "Kolar's fictionalised Kakani Govardhan Field (KGF)." He questioned if any citizen had benefitted from Jagan Mohan Reddy's long ministerial tenure.
"Democracy feels ashamed to recognise this kind of a leader as minister," he remarked.
Naidu celebrated his 74th birthday at a camp site in Rayadurg Assembly segment. He cut the cake with local schoolchildren in the presence of party workers and TD candidate from Rayadurg Kalava Sreenivasulu.