Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Polit Buro member B.V. Raghavulu on Sunday accused the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its ‘anti-people policies and communal agenda’.
Mr. Raghavulu was in the city to attend a two-day CPI(M) State committee meeting.
Addressing reporters, Mr. Raghavulu said that the YSRCP was implementing anti-people policies such as a hike in electricity tariff and imposing user charges on garbage collection as directed by the Central government.
“The State government imposed a steep burden on the people by hiking the APSRTC fare and property tax under the garb of reforms,” he said, adding that when it came to several anti-people decisions of the Centre, the State government was implementing the same when other States were opposing them tooth and nail.
“The TDP is also conspicuously silent on the communal agenda of the BJP government at the Centre. Indirectly, the TDP is supporting the Sangh Parivar forces,” Mr. Raghavulu alleged. “The CPI(M) would support secular forces that fight against the BJP,” he added.
Mr. Raghavulu, referring to the offer reportedly being made to ration card holders to give cash in lieu of their quota of subsidised rice, warned that the government would soon stop supplying rice in the long run if people opted for cash.
CPI(M) State secretariat member Ch. Babu Rao was present.