Suspended TDP MLA Kodali Nani has launched a frontal attack on the party chief Chandrababu Naidu by alleging that “backstabbing” was an art patented by him. He called those attacking him as pet dogs of Naidu. He has also leveled serious charges that Naidu has taken Rs 300 crore for giving Rajya Sabha seats.
Nani was suspended from the TDP soon after he met YSR Congress honorary president Y S Vijayamma on Tuesday morning. He was immediately suspended from the party.
Unmindful of the suspension, he went to the Chanchalguda jail in the evening and met Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. Though he said at that time that he met Jagan only in his individual capacity, after coming back here, he held a meeting with his followers and launched a frontal attack on Naidu.
Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, Nani said that he had not left TDP, but was necked out. He alleged that Naidu was driving out all the loyalists of late N T Rama Rao, founder of the party, so that he could bring his son Lokesh into politics and give the reins of the party to him.
Questioning why he was suspended, he said that it was atrocious that he was not even asked for an explanation before being sent out. He said that he would go to court on the matter. He also demanded an apology from Naidu for sending him out without even serving a show-cause notice.
Denying the charge that he has received a package of Rs 30 crores for joining the YSR Congress from Jagan, Nani said that he would swear on his two daughters Vijaya Durga and Kanaka Durga that he had not taken even a single rupee. He questioned the TDP leaders, who were leveling that charge, whether they brokered between him and Jagan to finalize that deal. In fact, it was Naidu, who sold Rajya Sabha tickets for Rs 300 crores, he added. He also questioned Naidu how much he had received for sending his brother into the Congress party.
Nani has alleged that Jagan had leadership qualities and he had no objection to work with him. If it was money that mattered to him, he would have joined the Congress party when YSR was alive, Nani added. He said that Naidu had fallen on the feet of NTR and hopped from Congress to TDP. However, he backstabbed the great leader later to become chief minister and Naidu’s pet dogs were now hounding out NTR loyalists, Nani has alleged.
Stating that he had joined the TDP as he treated late NTR as God, he said that it was Hari Krishna, who was responsible for his political career, and Jr. NTR, who fought with the party chief and got him TDP ticket twice from Gudivada. He said that he had redeemed his debt to the two, by winning the seat twice.
Nani said that it was because of his love for NTR and the Nandamuri family that he remained in TDP and not because of Naidu. Referring to the claim of TDP leaders that Naidu was a great leader, Nani questioned why of the 17 tickets issued by him in Krishna district in 2009, only two won the Assembly elections. He said that he won the elections only because of his own strength and not because of Naidu.
—NSS