Hyderabad, February 03: Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy today strongly objected to allegations levelled against Congress president Sonia Gandhi by senior Congress leader G Venkataswamy yesterday. He termed the CWC member’s statements as most unfortunate and pointed out that Sonia Gandhi had twice sacrificed the PM’s post in the interests of the party.
Addressing the media at Secretariat tonight, the chief minister criticised Venkataswamy for making baseless allegations despite his experience of decades in the party.
He reminded the senior leader that it was Sonia who led the party to victory twice both at the Centre and in the state.
‘’Defence minister A K Antony had clearly announced that he met (Praja Rajyam Party president) Chiranjeevi following directions from Soniaji, so there was no scope for confusion. The final decision (on the alliance) is in the hands of our party high command,” he said.
Kiran Kumar said the PRP was not an enemy of Congress and there was nothing wrong in the ruling party striking an alliance with it. He asserted that the Congress enjoys a majority in the Assembly and faced no threat to its government.
Responding to a question, the chief minister said he would take a final decision on the appointment of a deputy chief minister shortly. He laughed at TDP president Chandrababu Naidu’s allegations against Sonia Gandhi.
“It is funny that a person who backstabbed his father-in-law to sit in the chief minister’s chair is making such allegations against Sonia Gandhi who sacrificed the Prime Minister’s post,” he said.
Stating that some media organisations were twisting his remarks, Kiran Kumar said in a lighter vein that there was need for another media organisation to disseminate fair news of the Congress party.
He said his statements on researching for 60 days to defend Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in the Assembly on the Paritala Ravi murder case were twisted by certain media organisations.
—Agencies