L Ramana

HYDERABAD: Former Minister and ex-MP L. Ramana has been named as the Telugu Desam candidate for the Karimnagar Lok Sabha by-election.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu said the polit bureau meeting during the day had unanimously decided to field Mr. Ramana, who is Karimnagar TDP president. "We felt he is the right candidate, as he has close rapport with the people."

Maintaining that Statehood for Telangana was not an issue in the bypoll, he said the party would highlight the Government's `failures', corruption, development of backward areas, power situation and "opportunistic politics" of Telangana Rashtra Samiti , among others.

Claiming that TDP was "number one" and the rivals would have to decide who would be its main opponent, Mr. Naidu said the party had "performed quite well" in local body elections in Karimnagar and Telangana districts.

He accused the Congress and the TRS of adopting opportunistic politics. The TDP chief alleged that the district which accounted for the maximum number of suicides and starvation deaths among farmers and weavers. He faulted TRS president K.Chandrasekhar Rao for failing to secure as Central Minister a "package" for mitigating weavers' hardships.

Poser to YSR

Mr. Naidu charged the ruling party with `deceiving' the minorities on the issue of reservations. Referring to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's statement that reservations would be enforced, he wanted him to spell out how, in the wake of an affidavit filed by the Centre in the apex court stating that religion-based reservations could not be implemented.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail