HYDERABAD: Three years ahead of the general election, leader of the opposition N Chandrababu Naidu has decided to embark on a statewide padayatra in support of farmers' cause from November 2. It will be the first padayatra by Naidu who has been in politics for 32 years.
Though Naidu took a leaf out of his bete noire the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, his padayatra will not be a continuous one like Reddy's. Naidu will go on a 15 to 20 km padayatra in each district everyday. He will take two or three days of break after every spell of the yatra.
Naidu will cover 330 to 440 km in 22 districts by walk in the next one month or so. "My padayatra is intended to mobilise farmers against the government," Naidu told reporters here on Thursday.
Though the TDP chief claimed that his yatra was in no way connected to politics, it will help his party regain its lost glory in the state. The padayatra will come at a time when Sakala Janula Samme was called off and YSRC party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is facing a CBI probe into his illegal assets.
Yet, it is a not a rosy picture for TDP. It has been facing desertions from the party ranks in the Andhra and Telangana regions.
Naidu's yatra is intended to highlight farmers' plight and also consolidate the party's base to face the 2014 electoral battle. Naidu will expose alleged government's inefficiency and YSR Congress corruption in the Andhra region. He will also highlight the "shady Polavaram tender" during his "Rytu Poru Yatra".
Naidu will tour Rayalaseema on the first leg of his padayatra to counter the surge of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and Telangana later.
"Naidu, who always thinks globally and acts locally, is linking the agrarian crisis in India to the latest Wall Street protests in the US. The US protesters planned to descend on Wall Street recently in expression of anger over a financial system which favours the rich at the expense of ordinary citizens," said a party worker.
"At the Wall Street, US citizens displayed their anger over economic inequalities.The situation is the same in our country. Around 80 per cent farmers are in debts. Economic inequalities are widening at the expense of farmers. Farming should be profitable and farmers themselves should decide price of their produce," he said.
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