Answer on RLI First: YSRCP's Sajjala Slams Naidu for Dodging Core Issues
YSR Congress Party State Coordinator Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy on Saturday accused Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of deliberately shifting the political narrative to Amaravati to evade accountability over the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation (RLI) controversy and an alleged backroom understanding with Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, which, he said, was openly referred to on the floor of the Assembly.
Addressing the media, Sajjala said the “cat is out of the bag” after Revanth Reddy’s remarks, and Chandrababu Naidu must answer the core question raised by former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy—whether there was any discussion or understanding on the RLI issue. “He must clearly state if he spoke to Revanth Reddy and either endorse those remarks or categorically deny them,” Sajjala said.
Instead of responding, he alleged, the TDP and its publicity machinery launched a shrill campaign around Jagan Mohan Reddy’s comments on Amaravati, with the sole intention of burying the RLI issue. He also dismissed attempts to portray Hyderabad as a personal grievance, recalling that the city was declared a joint capital for ten years and asserting that Chandrababu’s discomfort stemmed from his name surfacing in the cash-for-vote case.
Sajjala said the Amaravati questions raised by Jagan Mohan Reddy are substantive and farmer-centric. He pointed out that nearly 50,000 acres were taken from farmers in the first phase of land pooling without delivering justice in terms of development, while the government is now seeking another 50,000 acres in the second phase. “Grand speeches and tall promises cannot hide the failure on the ground,” he said.
Calling the proposed Secretariat plans “hyperbolic,” Sajjala said the government’s claim of constructing a 50 lakh square feet complex exposes the scale of excess. “The Parliament itself is around 7 lakh square feet and the Telangana Secretariat is about 10 lakh square feet. Inflated size only means inflated costs and corruption through mobilisation advances,” he alleged.
He further accused Chandrababu Naidu of commercialising governance by projecting Visakhapatnam for business gains while using Amaravati as a tool to mint money, despite no real appreciation in land values. In contrast, he said, Jagan Mohan Reddy never opposed Amaravati and had demonstrated his commitment by building his house there even before the 2019 elections, while proposing Visakhapatnam as the seat of power without undermining Amaravati.
Sajjala alleged that Amaravati has turned into the “mother of all scams,” with public money being siphoned off through inflated contracts awarded to favoured contractors. He also questioned Chandrababu’s silence on water-sharing issues, asking how Rayalaseema could receive water when Telangana is drawing 9 TMC daily from Srisailam at 777 feet, without any effective protest from the Andhra Pradesh government.
On finances, Sajjala accused Chandrababu Naidu of fiscal indiscipline, claiming the government raised over Rs 3 lakh crore in less than two years. He contrasted this with Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tenure, during which Rs 3.30 lakh crore was raised over five years, of which Rs 2.73 lakh crore was directly transferred to beneficiaries through DBT. “The numbers expose the truth,” he said, asserting that diversion politics cannot mask governance failures.
