Roja faults TDP for blaming police for Guntur stampede

PNS|Vijayawada

Minister for Tourism and Culture, RK Roja has slammed TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for the loss of lives during his party programmes in Nellore and Guntur. Addressing a media conference on Monday, the minister said the opposition party is a ‘discipline-less party’. She rebuked the TDP leaders for blaming the police arrangements to cover up the mishandling of the event.

She said since people are not showing any interest in attending Chandrababu Naidu’s rallies the TDP is luring poor women with ‘freebies’.

The minister said, “It was only because of police presence in good numbers that a major tragedy was averted. As otherwise, people are not turning up for his meetings, Chandrababu lured women by promising free sarees.”

Drawing parallels between the TDP and YSRC in terms of managing political rallies, the Tourism Minister said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy walked over 3500 km during his ‘padayatra’ and lakhs of people and well-wishers attended his public meetings, and nothing untoward was reported in these programmes.

Roja blamed the TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu for the deaths that took place during two stampede incidents in less than a week’s time. She urged the chief minister YS Jagan to order a probe into these unfortunate incidents so the guilty can be punished.