Statue controversy in Andhra too, it is NTR and YSR

Hyderabad, Jan 20 (ANI): Taking strong objection to TDP's remark that the party would remove all the YSR statues erected illegally, YSR Congress party has said the history of the Chandrababu-led party is littered with politics of opportunism and backstabbing and cautioned that people will revolt if any attempt is made on the memorials that have come up across the state with peoples' participation.

Drawing a contrast between YSR and Chandrababu Naidu, party spokesperson, Vasireddy Padma said: "While our leader was promising free power to farmers and other welfare measures, Naidu has been promising to remove and erase the statues, if TDP comes to power. His remarks expose his mind-set."

Asserting that all the statues were erected by the people by pooling up contributions, she said necessary permissions were taken from the concerned authorities and in some cases private lands were given by the owners due to love and affection they have had on YSR.

"The bravado of Naidu that they will erect one lakh statues of NTR will not go well, given his background, she said adding that Naidu as Chief Minister has ordered to remove all the photos of NTR from Secretariat and the culture of removing photos and statues belongs to Naidu," she added.

She said if TDP is so concerned about NTR statues, why couldn't Naidu, who boasts of getting things done at the Centre by a phone call, failed to mount pressure on unveiling NTR statue in the Parliament.

The question of TDP coming to power does not arise as the voting percentage has come down from 48 per cent in 1994 (NTR campaign) to 28 per cent in 2009 and will go down to 12 per cent in the 2014 elections, she said. (ANI)