Even as the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) has ordered an inquiry into the alleged leakage of question paper for the village secretaries recruitment test, the YSR Congress party leaders threw an interesting challenge to the Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh.
Five deputy chief ministers – Pamula Pushpa Sri Vani (tribal welfare), Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose (revenue, stamps and registration), Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas alias Alla Nani (health, family welfare and medical education), K Narayana Swamy (Excise and Prohibition), Amzad Basha Sheik Bepari (Minority welfare) challenged whether Naidu and Lokesh could compete with the candidates who stood at the top in the recruitment test.
They were reacting to the demand by Naidu and Lokesh that the government should conduct a re-examination for the Village Secretaries recruitment since there were allegations of question paper leakage to benefit a few belonging to the staff of APPSC.
The TDP chief wrote an open letter to chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy alleging that the ruling party had helped its cadre to get merit by leaking the question paper.
“We are throwing an open challenge to Naidu and Lokesh. If the government conducts re-examination, will the TDP chief and his son write the exam competing with the merit candidates and pass the test?” they asked.
As Naidu wanted the government to scrap the exam and conduct it afresh to save the image of the APPSC, the five deputy chief ministers said that they would do so only if Lokesh proved his merit over the State rankers in the exam.
The deputy chief ministers said that BC, SC and ST candidates have secured the top ranks in the exam, which the TDP was not able to digest.
They further said that the TDP was also not able to digest the fact that this government had given 1.26 lakh jobs to the unemployed youth at a stroke, which as a record in the entire country.
No state had done this so far, they claimed and said that Chandrababu Naidu and his leaders were worried about the future of the TDP.
The new government had given nearly 4 lakh jobs in the form of village and ward volunteers and village and ward secretariats in just a span of three months, which, they said was an eyesore to the TDP and its supporters.