Sharmila crosses 2,000-km mark

Sharmila, sister of YSR Congress President Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, crossed a major milestone in her 'Maro Prajaprasthanam' padayatra in West Godavari district on Thursday.A As a massive crowd cheered, she crossed the 2,000-km mark at Ravikampadu village in Kamavarapukota mandal in the district on the 150th day of her yatra. So far, she has covered 68 Assembly constituencies in 10 districts.

It may be recalled that she had embarked on a walkathon October 18 last year to traverse around 3,000 km, covering all the 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Her objective: To impress upon the people the 'machinations' of the Congress government behind the imprisonment of her brother. She began the yatra from her father and late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's Samadhi at their family estate at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district. To mark the historic feat on Thursday, Sharmila she unveiled a 24 ft high statue of Rajasekhara Reddy at Rajapadu village in Kamavarapukota mandal, where she also addressed a huge public meeting.

YSRCP Honorary President Vijayamma, who was also present at the meeting, alleged that Jaganmohan Reddy was incarcerated only because he rebelled against the Congress Party. She lamented that several ministers government indulged in large-scale corruption, but there was no action against them. She sought to remind the people of 'collusion' between the TDP and the Congress, which she said was evident in the refusal of TDP to move no-trust motion against the government.

She said the people of West Godavari supported Rajasekhara Reddy when he embarked on a padayatra against the 'misrule' of Chandrababu Naidu, and thanked them for supporting the padayatra of Sharmila. She enthused confidence Jaganmohan Reddy would win the next elections and come to power to provide succour to the people.

Sharmila in her speech launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, and accused him of indulging unbridled corruption and said he had become a 'Vasool Raja.' Listing out various burdens imposed by the government, she said the government had imposed a burden of as much as Rs 30,000 crore on the people by way of taxes and power tariff hike. A

While the Congress government acted with alacrity to put Jagan behind bars, it was dragging its feet to send 'corrupt and anarchic ministers' in his cabinet to jail. A Turning her attention to Telugu Desam Party, she alleged that Desam and Congress had hatched a conspiracy to foist false cases against Jaganmohan Reddy and keep him in jail, as they could not face him politically.

Comparing Jagan to a lion, she said it made no difference whether "Lion is inside or outside the cage." Sharmila alleged that Chandrababu Naidu who was in neck-deep corruption during his rule did not have the right to speak of corruption. She expressed confidence that 'Jagananna rajyam' would come after the next general elections to uplift the poor and downtrodden people.