Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu started feeling the impact of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s “return gift” in a surprising form of initiating a probe into data-for-vote scandal.
And KCR is not going to stop with it. In a counter to Naidu’s campaign in Telangana during the recent assembly elections, KCR is sending his minister for animal husbandry Talasani Srinivasa Yadav to address a massive rally of Yadava community between Guntur and Vijayawada.
The meeting, christened as Yadava Garjana, which is an apparent attempt to create a split in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) who form the traditional vote bank of the TDP, was supposed to be held on March 3, but the Guntur police denied permission on the pretext of law and order concerns.
Now, the rally has been rescheduled to be held on March 10 and a fresh permission has been sought for the same.
Apparently, Talasani is hopeful that the Election Commission will announce the schedule for the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh in a day or two.
“Once the schedule is announced, the government machinery will come under the control of the EC. So, the police would not be able to create hurdles for the rally as they would not be under the control of the TDP government,” a source said.
Talasani said he had a number of followers among the Yadava community in Andhra and Rayalaseema.
“I may not ask the people to vote for any particular party, but I will certainly ask them to defeat Naidu and his TDP,” he said.
Subsequently, MIM president Asaduddin Owisi, too, would campaign against Naidu in Andhra Pradesh to indirectly benefit the YSR Congress party, sources said.