Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu is known for his weakness to hijack others’ successes while shifting the blame on the opponents for his own failures. He believes that the memory of the public is very short and tries to use this trick during his public meetings and press conferences, hoping to hoodwink the people. But as the saying goes, the wily leader cannot fool the public all the time. And this was proved once again, not in Andhra Pradesh but right inside the Telangana State Assembly.
Congress, the ruling party in Telangana, and the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), locked their horns during the latest Assembly sessions over the issue of irrigation projects in Telangana. Interestingly, as the two sides traded charges against each other, the ruling party members unwittingly ended up projecting both the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy and his son and current Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy as leaders fully committed to the various irrigation projects of the Rayalaseema region.
The common grouse was that the irrigation projects in Rayalaseema benefitted immensely at the expense of Telangana under YSR when he was the chief minister of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh. His son YS Jagan is now taking it to the next level with his relentless initiatives. Ironically, both the ruling and opposition parties tried to demonise the father-son duo in the eyes of Telangana. But they unwittingly ended up projecting an indisputable positive image as game-changers of the irrigation sector in Andhra Pradesh. The status of irrigation projects dominated the four days of heated debate in the Telangana Assembly and there were repeated references to both late YSR and YS Jagan. Chandrababu Naidu’s name rarely figured in the discourse, much to the embarrassment of the TDP chief and his men.
The BRS members raked up the issue when they alleged that the irrigation projects in the Telangana region suffered badly during YSR’s regime. A galaxy of Congress members including Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers Uttam Kumar Reddy and Sridhar Babu countered this, squarely blaming the BRS regime for this. They gave a detailed account as to how YS Jagan managed to increase the allocation of water for Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme and the Pothireddypadu head regulator scheme, right under the nose of then chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao.
In an attempt to blame YS Jagan, Uttam Kumar Reddy unknowingly vindicated how the YSRCP chief could go to any length to protect the interests of the Rayalaseema region. He said that the Pothireddypadu head regulator used to have a water storage capacity of 44,000 cusecs when the late YSR was the chief minister. The same had been increased to 90,000 cusecs by the YS Jagan government, he alleged.
Revanth Reddy went one step ahead and accused KCR of paving the way for Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme during a luncheon meeting with YS Jagan. He claimed that the GO No. 203 facilitating supply of 8 TMCs of water per day from Srisailam reservoir was prepared at Pragathi Bhavan at the behest of YS Jagan.
The Congress members may have used this rhetoric to primarily target the BRS and KCR. Project KCR as a colluder with YS Jagan could be the idea behind this. But, the Congress members listing out developments from history in this process came as a tight slap in the face for Chandrababu Naidu and the anti-Jagan bandwagon in Andhra Pradesh. The slanging match in the Telangana Assembly established the fact unequivocally that it was only late YSR first and then his son YS Jagan who walked the talk in protecting the irrigation interests of the Rayalaseema region.
The visual snippets of this banter in the Telangana Assembly are certainly going to be used as potent weapons by the YSRCP leaders and its cadre whenever the TDP or its yellow media distorts facts in future. Revanth Reddy is known to be a disciple of Chandrababu Naidu in politics. But, he too appeared to have acknowledged the fact that only the late YSR and YS Jagan had protected the irrigation interests of Andhra Pradesh and not Chandrababu Naidu. Certainly, a bitter pill to swallow for the foxy TDP chief who will have nowhere to hide hereafter.