After Andhra Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Somu Veerraju criticised the village and ward volunteer governance system launched by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the ruling YSRCP has questioned the opposition parties for already accepting defeat in the recent Tirupati by-poll.

V. Vijayasai Reddy, a senior Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP, on Monday asked if the opposition parties have already accepted their defeat in the Tirupati by-poll or are attempting to pin the blame on the volunteer system after losing the election.

These people should stop crying over the volunteer system which is winning international accolades, he added.

“Jagan Mohan Reddy launched volunteer system won international accolades for taking government schemes to the people and people should not cry over those liaising agents,” he opined.

Somu Veerraju alleged that 50 to 60 per cent of the volunteers were YSRCP activists.

He said the BJP has already put in a system, the ‘Page Pramukh system’, in all the states of the country where party ‘karyakartas’ (activists) work voluntarily without wasting public money.

“This ‘Page Pramukh system’ has been transformed into a volunteer system here.”

He challenged the YSRCP to appoint its activists without money and claimed that the volunteers are being used to threaten.

However, the volunteer system has received good appreciation from several quarters, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During a video conference with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister a few months ago from Tirupati, Modi appreciated the village and ward volunteer governance system and told him that it is worth emulating.

Likewise, Karnataka government officials also visited Anantapur district to study the grassroots governance system.