It is witch-hunting by Congress, YSRC: Yanamala

HYDERABAD: The CBI probe against party president N Chandrabu Naidu is part of the witch-hunting launched by the Congress in collusion with YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the Telugu Desam has alleged.Speaking to mediapersons at NTR Bhavan, the party’s headquarters, here on Thursday, Politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the move was part of an exercise to malign and weaken Chandrababu Naidu and prevent him from galvanising the non-Congress opposition parties at the national level in the campaign against corruption.“Chandrababu Naidu is the only leader capable of taking on the Congress and bringing other parties together on a single platform to fight the Congress.Hence the design to weaken and throw mud on him.’’ Ramakrishnudu said it was rather strange that YS Vijayamma had chosen to file a petition against Naidu while her husband and former chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy had not chosen to do so in spite of being in power from 2004 to 2009.He said as many as 17 cases were filed against Naidu during the YSR regime and YSR himself was the petitioner in respect of 13 cases. The YSR government had ordered 26 enquiries, including some by Assembly committees, and all of them were wound up after they failed to prove any charge against Naidu.After the arrest of Gali Janardhan Reddy, Jagan Mohan Reddy was ready to do anything to please the Congress and be away from the CBI arm.That was the reason why he had his mother file the petition in the High Court against Naidu, the TDP leader alleged.Ramakrishnudu said that the TDP would take all steps to legally defend its president and take a decision soon on how to proceed in the case.Asked about reports of the CBI filing an FIR against Naidu by Monday, the TDP leader said that he, as a lawyer, thought that filing of an FIR would happen only after an enquiry was completed. “How can there be an FIR when the probe is in preliminary stage?’‘ he countered