YSRCP calls Naidu’s Amaravati tour a publicity stunt after people of Andhra reject TDP

The acrimony between political rivals in Andhra Pradesh continues as TDP and YSRCP spar over Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘Chalo Amaravati’ tour on Thursday. Along with his party leaders, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had planned a 'Çhalo Amaravati’ tour to meet the farmers who had donated their land for the capital region and pay a visit to the sites of projects he had initiated as CM. The tour had met with hurdle right at the beginning as his entourage was met with protests primarily from farmers' groups, with a protestor even hurling a slipper at Naidu.

The Amaravati Capital region consists of 29 villages between Vijayawada and Guntur that were acquired under the Naidu regime and the foundation stone was laid on 22 October 2015. Continuing the tour, Naidu urged the sitting Chief Minister and his arch-rival, Jaganmohan Reddy, to not forsake the developmental projects he had initiated during his tenure. Naidu claimed that under him the then Andhra government had planned to develop over 54,000 acres of land pooled for the capital city construction at Amaravathi and refuted allegations by the ruling dispensation claiming that work around Rs 5,000 crore which is just 5% of the total projects planned was completed during his tenure.

READ: Naidu's Amravathi Tour Turns Violent, Protestors Hurl Slippers, Stones, Block Roads

Accusations on Naidu

The YSRCP, however, derided Naidu’s much-publicized tour and called it ‘antics and theatrics even after the people of the surrounding constituencies have rejected his party outright in the 2019 elections’. YSRCP MLA Ambati Rambabu accused the former CM of ‘not having anything else to do but raising non-issues and trying to gain political mileage out of it by holding such marches and tours to which appears to be attention-seeking syndrome.' 

READ: Andhra Minister slams ex-CM N Chandrababu Naidu over Amaravati visit

Addressing the media on Friday, Rambabu said, ‘First, it was Chalo Atmakur, followed by attributing former Speaker Kodela’s suicide to YSRCP, the row on non-existent sand scarcity, much ado about introduction about English medium being introduced at the primary school level by the government and now the drama about the capital city’. The TDP, in turn, accused the ruling party of trying to derail the tour by orchestrating protests and attempting violence too in form of stone-pelting to hide the inadequacies of the current government. 

READ: TDP Chief Naidu: YSRCP minister's 'graveyard' remark on Amaravati unpardonable