Naidu promises Rs 50,000 for unearthing cash distribution

Vizianagaram, Dec 1 (UNI) TDP chief and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today promised to offer Rs 50,000 to any party worker for the development of his village, who unearth distribution of cash or liquor by the ruling Congress in the Bobbili Lok Sabha byelection scheduled for December 4.

Talking to newspersons before leaving for campaigning in the Bobbili Lok Sabha bypoll for the second day today, Mr Naidu alleged that the ruling Congress was distributing money and free liquor to win the byelection.

Mr Naidu said his party was offering the gift of Rs 50,000 for the development of villages as there was ''no other means to contain the corrupt practices of the ruling party.'' The party worker who gets hold of the ruling party functionaries distributing money or liquor, could choose the area or ward of his village to utilise the gifted money for development.

While the CPI was supporting the Congress, the CPI(M), an erstwhile ally of the Congress during the 2004 general elections was now supporting the opposition TDP.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party (TDP) leader K Yerran Naidu told reporters here that he would like to forget about the controversy raked up by Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K Rosaiah on the Union Government' GO about printing of skull and bones on beedi packets, as he had taken back his earlier statement that he (Yerran Naidu) had supported the GO.

The Beedi issue had become emotional in the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency byelection as there were about 2 lakh voters working in the beedi industry, he said.

Reacting to the statements of TDP and TRS leaders making the beedi issue big in the bypolls, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had said that the Act was passed in 2003 when the TDP supported NDA government and the GO pertaining to the Act was issued in 2005 when TRS supremo K Chandrasekhara Rao was the Union Labour Minister.

UNI JRK VA KP1632