Daggubati slams Naidu over NTR's statue row

Congress MLA Daggubati Venkateswara Rao on Monday accused Telugu Desam Party president and his brother-in-law N Chandrababu Naidu of politicising the installation of NTR's statue in the Parliament premises.

Talking to media persons at the Congress Legislature Party office here, Daggubati said that it was his wife and NTR's daughter Daggubati Purandeswari, who as a Union Minister, made several representation to the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking permission for installation of statue of former chief minister and her late father NT Rama Rao. However, he alleged that by involving TDP MPs on the issue, Naidu has been trying to take credit for the same.

Accusing Chandrababu Naidu of cheating the people, especially the fans of late NTR, he said that the TDP chief failed to install NTR's statue while NDA was in power with the support of TDP.

Daggubati said that Purandeswari took the consent of all family members, except Balakrishna who was busy with the shooting of a film, for installation of NTR's statue in the Parliament's premises. However, he said Naidu has been wrongly trying to take credit for the achievement of Purandeswari.

He also alleged that Naidu failed to name the international airport at Shamshabad after NTR although the first MoU for the project was signed during his regime. He said Naidu could have issued a GO naming the project after NTR. However, he said Naidu never showed interest in such matters while in power and now he has been trying to take credit for achievement of others.