Media-savvy Naidu woos women with election tickets

Naidu warned the people that development would be hampered if the TDP was notvoted to power again as projects worth about Rs 14,000 crore were ready for implementation. “But, I am confident after today’s meeting that we will bag a majority of the seats. The resounding success of Vijayabheri (function) is like a tonic which will give me sufficient energy to serve you better,” the CM said.

The sprawling Parade grounds was packed to capacity and the crowd sat through the three-hour meeting. TDP founder late NT Rama Rao’s pictorial presence was overwhelming with his images looking down from posters, banners and huge cutouts.

Naidu himself did not lose any opportunity to refer to the late leader’s efforts in building the Telugu Desam party and shaping it as a major anti-Congress force even at the national level.

Aware that women constitute the major chunk of the vote-bank, the Telugu Desam leader emphasized that it was the TDP government which, for the first time, focussed on unshackling the fair sex from the clutches of men. A host of schemes involving expenditure ofhundreds of crores were launched to make women self-dependent, he pointed out.

“Even half-a-century after Independence, you are still confined to the kitchen. It is time you realise your potential and know that women are in no way inferior to men. My government is prepared to extend all possible help to women to make them self-reliant and truly independent,” he declared while announcing that the TDP would give more tickets to women in the coming elections.

But, in the case of the woman who is now in the centre of a controversy, Sonia Gandhi, the CM minced no words in making it clear that the Congress president’s foreign origin would be the TDP’s major poll issue.

“In other countries, Indians are not allowed to become chairpersons of even a small corporation. But, the Congressmen are planning to thrust someone who was born elsewhere as the prime minister of this country. This is an issue involving the prestige of the nation and the self-respect of the 97 crore citizens. You all have to think deeplyabout this,” he said.

Naidu made it clear that the real inheritors of NTR’s legacy were the ordinary workers of the TDP who sacrificed everything for the party. “Some people are claiming themselves to be true inheritors of NTR. But, I can say that no individual can claim NTR’s legacy,” he said.

Making an emotional appeal to the people, Naidu said: “I will not rest till I shed the last drop of my blood in transforming the State into `Swarnandhrapradesh’. I cannot claim that we have fulfilled all the promises made during the earlier elections, but I can say that we are marching in that direction”.

Besides Congress, the TDP supremo came down heavily on the Left parties for opposing his economic policies and criticising that he was helping the rich by giving up the welfare programmes. “Are they implementing the schemes we have launched in the States ruled by them?” he asked.

Party spokesman Ummareddy Venkateswarlu, general secretary SM Lal Jan Basha, Home Minister A Madhava Reddy, Revenue MinisterT Devender Goud, Rajya Sabha member Yerra Narayanaswamy also spoke on the occasion.