KAKINADA: Former deputy chief minister and Peddapuram MLA Nimmakayala Chinarajappa faced protests from a rival group within the Telugu Desam party.
Chandrababu Naidu, Chinarajappa and other party leaders went to Vetlapalem village of Samalkot Mandal on Friday to unveil the statue of TD senior leader late Boddu Bhaskara Ramarao.
When Chinarajappa was climbing the dais along with Chandrababu Naidu, some followers of Boddu Venkata Ramana Chowdary, son of late Boddu Bhaskara Ramarao, shouted slogans against Chinarajappa.
They raised slogans of “Go-back Chinarajappa’’ and demanded that Chandrababu give the party ticket to Chowdary.
Chandrababu Naidu made it clear that Chinarajappa would get the Peddapuram ticket for a third time also and the TD activists in all groups should help him win the seat. “After TD wins power, I would give suitable posts to Boddu Chowdary and another TD leader Gunnam Chandramouli,” Naidu said.
The TD chief called upon the TD cadres to focus on defeating chief minister Jagan Reddy.
Later, Chandrababu Naidu interacted with Schedule Caste people at Samalkot. At the event, Maha Sena president Rajesh joined the Telugu Desam along with his followers. Rajesh said he and other SCs have supported the YSRC to make Jagan the chief minister with a “wrong notion” that Chandrababu Naidu betrayed the causes of the SCs.
“But after Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power, the SCs knew that they had been betrayed by the YSRC.”
He said Chandrababu Naidu had implemented 27 schemes for the SCs during the TD term, but Jagan had abolished all these schemes. “If the people gave votes to the TD, Chandrababu would have constructed Amaravati as the capital and completed the Polavaram Project.”
Chandrababu said a debate should be held as to whether the TD did good to the SCs, or Jagan did so. He said the TD had given the Lok Sabha speaker post to the late GMC Balayogi and the assembly speaker post to the late Prathibha Bharati. “Poorer sections of the people should be supported economically and the SCs should come forward to work with the TD for this purpose,” he said.
