Fact Sheet: Cong ministers chant NTR mantra!

Now that the talk of mid-term elections to Lok Sabha and if possible to the State Assembly is doing rounds very seriously, the Congress party is trying every strategy to outwit the main opposition party, Telugu Desam.

The Y S Rajasekhar Reddy government, which has beaten the TD in its own coin by announcing Rs 2 a kg rice scheme, is going a step further to take steam out of the main Opposition. The ministers in the Rajasekhar Reddy Cabinet are now showering encomiums on Telugu Desam founder-president and former Chief Minister late N T Rama Rao, describing him as the champion of the poor and a man of principles.

Minister for Housing Botsa Satyanarayana went to the extent of saying that by introducing Rs 2 a kg rice scheme in 1983, NTR heralded a new chapter in the food security in the country and proved himself to be a man of the masses. He said that the present Telugu Desam is no way related to the NTR's party, as present TD president N Chandrababu Naidu had backstabbed his father in law and diluted the latter's populist schemes. "We are bringing back the glorious era of NTR by reviving the Rs 2 a kg rice scheme," he said, in a television interview. So did Roads and Buildings Minister T Jeevan Reddy. He also described NTR as the real leader and a crusader against the poverty.

The Congress leaders are trying to cash in on the image of NTR, which is still a vote-catching thing. By reviving the Rs 2 a kg rice scheme and praising NTR, they are outsmarting the TD!!