Naidu, Chiru emulate CM’s sign campaign

BY J.R.PRASAD

Hyderabad, April 4: The Telugu Desam chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, and the Praja Rajyam supremo, Chiranjeevi, are trying to emulate the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who is using the “first signature” mantra to give credibility to his poll promises.

The two leaders who were imitating the populist schemes of Dr Reddy are now also copying the election strategy adopted by the Chief Minister.
During the 2004 elections, Dr Reddy announced several populist schemes to dislodge the Chandrababu Naidu government.
In order to convince the rural voters of his promises, Dr Reddy had said his “first signature would be on the file to provide free power to farmers.” This helped him storm to power finally.
At that time, the TD leaders had made fun of Dr Reddy and said: “Soon after taking the oath as the Chief Minister, one should sign the official gazette and not any file.”
Putting aside his earlier reservations, Mr Naidu declared a few days ago that he would first sign a file empowering local bodies if he became the Chief Minister. On April 2, while releasing his party’s manifesto, the TD chief said he would also sign the file on “cash transfer scheme.”
When scribes reminded him that he had earlier promised to sign the file on local bodies, Mr Naidu said: “I will sign both the files simultaneously.”
However, the TD chief has the dubious distinction of dumping late NTR’s flagship prohibition scheme, which was the first file signed by the TD founder in 1994.
Taking a dig at Mr Naidu’s promise of putting his first signature on two files simultaneously, Chiranjeevi said, “How can Mr Naidu sign simultaneously on two files. Will he sign with both the hands?”
Chiranjeevi too had declared that the first file he would sign if people made him the Chief Minister would be the one giving monthly groceries at Rs 100 to the poor. Even though Mr Naidu and Chiranjeevi criticised the policies of the Chief Minister, they are now promising to extend the ongoing schemes like Rajiv Arogyasri and free power to other sections of people if they come to power.
Chiranjeevi also promised that his party would extend the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, being implemented by the government, to urban areas, if the PR came to power.