In a bold political move, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday launched his “Telugu Jaati Atma Gaurav (self-respect)” bus yatra in Seemandhra region while maintaining his stand on Telangana issue.
Before proceeding to Pondugula of Dachepally mandal of Gurujala constituency in Guntur district, Naidu paid tributes to TDP founder late NT Rama Rao at NTR Ghat. Speaking on the occasion, Naidu admitted that the TDP gave a letter favouring formation of Telangana. However, he said that the Centre must first solve all the problems arising out of this bifurcation.
Naidu said that instead of solving the Telangana issue, the Congress-led UPA Government created a rift among Telugus in the State. He blamed Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the prevailing chaos in the Seemandhra region and also for ignoring the ongoing agitation by hundreds of people in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.
The TDP chief suggested that people from Telangana and Seemandhra should be made to sit together for an amicable solution to the existing problems. He said that instead of suppressing instability, the Congress ignited the fire of hatred and made Telugus fight each other who were otherwise living as “Ram Lakshman” without any regional affiliations.
Asking Telugu people to display their strength, Naidu said that the Congress should be punished for dividing the Telugu people on regional grounds. He said that it was the TDP, which was formed on the basis of Telugu pride, which brought international recognition for Hyderabad where everyone lived peacefully. However, the Congress party instilled a sense of fear among the people that they were not safe in the other region of the Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu plans to cover all 13 districts of Seemandhra region in the next 35 days. (INN)