Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Sunday demanded that all MPs of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) resign to step up pressure on the Central government in the current session of Parliament to withdraw privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
Former minister and TDP leader Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy said if the YSRCP MPs in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha resign, then the TDP members would also follow in their footsteps.
He said Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should come to the rescue of one lakh workers of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) as it was his basic duty in his capacity as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
He said it was in the interest of VSP workers and people that TDP national president and leader of opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu offered to follow Jagan Mohan Reddy. The CM should have responded positively to the gesture made by the opposition leader in a respectful manner.
Naidu had on Saturday asked Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to join the struggle and lead it from the front.
Extending his party’s complete support to the ‘Save Vizag Steel’ agitation, Naidu reiterated that his party’s elected representatives would be ready to resign from their posts for the sake of the steel plant.
Satyanarayana Murthy said the general feeling among the people is that the only goal of YSRCP MPs is to have their rebel MP Raghurama Raju disqualified. Jagan Reddy should realise that the present burning issue in Andhra Pradesh is to prevent the privatisation of steel plant and to safeguard the interests of the workers, he said.
He recalled that Jagan Reddy had stated during the elections that he would bend the necks of the central leaders if he was given 25 MPs. If Jagan takes over leadership of the steel plant agitation, then the AP MPs can bring Parliament to a standstill till the privatisation move was withdrawn, Murthy said.
The TDP leader termed as ‘reckless’ the statement by Jagan Reddy’s advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy that if TDP MPs want to resign they can do so. “Instead of giving a plan to stop the Steel Plant privatisation, Sajjala is only diverting the public attention by making unwarranted comments against the appeal of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu. It is clear how the chief minister, his advisor and his Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Sai Reddy are not bothered about the steel plant at all,” said Satyanarayana Murthy.
The TDP said that the YSRCP is ruthlessly betraying the aspirations of over 38 villages that contributed their thousands of acres of land for the VSP. He alleged that YSRCP leaders were only interested in making quick and easy money through sand, land, liquor and cement mafia but not in the struggles of the workers and common people.
He urged the people to realise whether the TDP or the YSRCP had the credibility when it came to the fight for saving the steel plant. He pointed out that Chandrababu Naidu immediately rushed to the protest camp and extended his party’s overall support to the agitating workers whereas, Jagan Reddy was playing all sorts of discreditable dramas without giving any hope to the steel plant workers on the privatisation issue.
