The war of words between the Congress and the Telugu Desam intensified on Sunday, with PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana slamming TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu for calling him a “don and rowdy.” Mr Satyanarayana was reacting to Mr Naidu’s words by alleging that the TD chief was playing dirty politics and trying to gain cheap publicity.
“This was not expected from a leader who boasts that he was AP’s longest serving Chief Minister. How can he equate peaceful Vizianagaram district to Pakistan and use harsh words? It is unbecoming of him,” the PCC chief said. Terming Mr Naidu a “traitor, backstabber, blackmailer and worthless,” Mr Satyanarayana said that it would be better if the TD chief staged a protest in his native Chittoor district where the liquor mafia was active.
The PCC chief added that neither he nor any Congress leader from the district objected to the proposed dharna to be taken up by the TD on April 23. “Since the matter relating to ACB raids on liquor shops is under the High Court’s consideration, I have restrained myself from talking on the subject. This doesn’t give the TD leader a licence to criticise me unnecessarily,” Mr Satyanarayana said. Elsewhere, former minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy led the TD counter-attack, pointing out that the Vizianagaram DCC president had earlier issued a statement that the Congress will prevent Mr Naidu from staging the dharna. He wondered how the PCC chief can ignore a statement issued by his own DCC chief.