TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh on Monday lauded the people for boldly raising their voices against the ruling YSRCP MLAs and Ministers in the ongoing ‘Gadapa Gadapaku Government’ programme.
Lokesh said the Government had to hold the mass contact programme ‘behind the purdahs and curtain nets’ because of rising protests from all sections. The huge public backlash had further exposed the massive anti-Government wave in the State.
Lokesh sarcastically thanked Chief Minister Jagan Reddy for exposing his own regime’s unpopularity by holding Gadapa Gadapaku. The whole State had come to know the high range to which the anti-Government feelings among the people had reached in just three years.
Lokesh said the common public had turned the Government’s Gadapa Gadapaku into their own ‘Dabidi Dibide’ programme. They were openly questioning and criticising the YCP MLAs for not solving their problems at all. They demanded explanations from the Ministers on the ‘Badude Badudu’ taxes and charges that made their lives miserable.
The TDP MLC termed it as a pity that the ruling YSRCP MLAs and Ministers had to go to the people with massive security by the police. The intelligence wing had cautioned the Chief Minister about the huge public outcry that would come during the Gadapa Gadapaku visits.
Lokesh said that due to lack of an alternative, the ruling party leaders were carrying out Gadapa Gaddapaku programmes amid unprecedented bandobast. Drapes, curtains and nets were being used to prevent the public from freely interacting with the YCP leaders. Moreover, shops were being closed and preventive arrests were being made ahead of the Gadapa Gadapaku visits.
Lokesh called it ironic that the Chief Minister, who claimed credit for massive welfare programmes, had to take the help of the police even to face the public. Jagan Reddy held padayatra all over the State before the 2019 elections but in just three years, he was not able to freely go to the people’s doorsteps.
The TDP MLC said that the YSRCP regime used the police to suppress the voices of the opposition, social media activists and civil society in the past. Now, it was using the police force to silence the voices of the poorer sections who were just pouring out their unresolved problems to the YCP MLAs.