Veteran Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao, who generally refrains from making harsh comments against the political rivals, changed his style and attacked both Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Addressing a press conference, KVP described Naidu as a political chameleon who changes colours very frequently.
“In changing the political colours, Naidu can give tough competition to Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (U) president Nitish Kumar,” he said.
Recalling the TDP chief’s opportunistic policies, the Congress veteran said in 1996, Naidu allied with the Communist parties, in 1999, he formed an alliance with the BJP, and ahead of the 2009 elections, he formed a grand alliance comprising the TDP, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the two Communist parties.
In 2014, he returned to the BJP and in 2018, the TDP contested the assembly elections in alliance with the Congress party, Mr. Rao said.
KVP reminded that Naidu had come out of the NDA on the plank of special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
He said Naidu even staged a day-long deeksha in Delhi in the name of ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’, in support of his demand for Special Status for Andhra Pradesh in 2019.
“What has changed between 2019 and 2014 that Naidu had to rush back to the BJP seeking its political support?” he asked.
Turning his ire, perhaps for the first time, at Jagan, KVP said like Naidu, the Andhra chief minister, too, was prostrating before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“It is unfortunate that Jagan’s visit was confined to only “political gains” and not the key issues related to the welfare of the State and its people,” he said.
The Congress leader said Jagan was perhaps the only chief minister to have made so many rounds to the national capital.
“Under the BJP rule at the Centre, leaders of various parties across the country are arrested for their role in illegal sand mining and liquor scams, but for some strange reason, not a single minister or MP from Andhra Pradesh has been arrested,” he said.
KVP alleged that women’s dignity is at stake under the YSRCP rule, and the chief minister has remained silent even when his own sister and mother are subjected to online abuse and character assassination.
“He is the most ineffective chief minister who cannot protect his own mother and sister,” he criticised.