Jagan rejects Naidu's invitation to attend swearing-in ceremony

Ysr Congress Party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday turned down the invitation sent by Nara Chandrababu Naidu to attend his swearing-in ceremony to be held on June 8.

Speaking to reporters here on Saturday after the review meeting of five north coastal Andhra districts he said, “On one hand Naidu has been seeking donations from the people to build the capital city and on the other an estimated Rs 30 crores is being lavishly spent on the swearing-in ceremony which at this point of time is not wise and I leave it to their wisdom but I personally will not ratify such a wasteful expenditure."

Jagan also asked the Chief Minister-designate to specify the period for which he plans to waive off the farm loans in Andhra Pradesh. He was apparently referring to the ongoing controversy over the farm loan waiver scheme in Telangana wherein TRS Government came in for sharp criticism for limiting the waiver to loans taken during 2013-14.

The YSRCP chief also justified the review of party's debacle in the recent elections. He said the reviews were aimed at correcting the shortcomings in some of the constituencies which the party had lost.

“It is not that we were in power and lost now and are searching for reasons. We started off with one MP and one MLA went up to two MPs and 20 MLAs and we now we have eight MPs and 67 MLAs and Seemandhra and nine MPs and 70 MLAs as a whole. Our graph has been on the rise. What we have reviewed is if there is any lacuna in organizational matters so that corrective measures will be taken in the days to come. We have taken the feedback from the cadre which will be the basis for strengthening the party structure," he said.