PRP urges people not to vote for Congress

The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) today appealed to the people not to vote for the Congress led by the “corrupt’’ Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

HYDERABAD:1 feb,2009- The Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) today appealed to the people not to vote for the Congress led by the “corrupt’’ Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

If a second term were given to the chief minister he would continue his looting spree in the State, the party maintained, and asked voters to “compare’’ the character of Rajasekhara Reddy with that of Chiranjeevi.

Speaking to the media here today, PRP political affairs committee member Chegondi Hariramajogaih took strong objection to Rajasekhara Reddy’s persistent criticism that Chiranjeevi had done nothing for his native village, Mogalturu, and sought to know what the chief minister had done for his Balapanur village.

Reacting to Reddy’s barb that he was unfamiliar with the “politics of moustache twirling and thigh slapping’’, Jogaiah said the former was a pastmaster at faction politics and at swindling crores of rupees. He further charged him with spreading falsehoods through his son’s Telugu daily and creating rifts between Malas and Madigas.

Referring to public attendance at the chief minister’s public meeting at Mogulturu, Jogaiah said people were lured with promises like old-age and widow pensions and house sites, whereas Chiranjeevi’s meeting in Pulivendula saw the crowds coming in on their own.

The senior PRP leader maintained that Chiranjeevi had earned each paisa by toiling day and night, whereas the chief minister had accumulated thousands of crores through corruption in irrigation projects.

“When I was minister for mines during Congress’ rule between 1989-94, Rajasekhara Reddy blackmailed the then chief ministers and secured barytes concessions. Earlier, when Channa Reddy was chief minister, a house committee and an administrative committee were constituted on the illegal mining of barytes by the Rajasekhara Reddy family. Based on the reports, I cancelled lease of two acres usurped by the Rajasekhara Reddy family and ordered recovery of Rs 1 crore from them,’’ Jogaiah said.

He added that since barytes at Mangampet were of such fine quality the then government had decided to leave some deposits unmined so as to afford future generations a glimpse of their beauty. But Rajasekhara Reddy’s family had ``stolen’’ Rs 1 crore worth of mineral from the site, he alleged.

There were a lot of “corruption stories’’ featuring Rajasekhara Reddy, whereas there were none involving Chiranjeevi, he claimed.