Vijayamma defends her husbands legacy

HYDERABAD: It was Y S Vijayalakshmi’s first day in the Assembly and she was asked to make her debut speech in the cauldron of the no-confidence debate.She made a bold bid, putting Chandrababu Naidu’s farmer-friendly avatar in perspective and subtly pointing out that this government is in office courtesy the effort of her husband, the late Y S Rajasekshar.Amidst all this, she managed to also defend her son Jagan Mohan Reddy, now besieged by CBI probes.Starting off with a dig at Chandrababu Naidu, she said it was ironic that the former chief minister, notorious for his anti-farmer rule, should move a no-confidence motion claiming to be the champion of farmers.She tried to suggest that Naidu’s no-trust lacked serious purpose: had he moved the motion six months ago, when the PRP had not yet merged in the Congress, a trust vote might have brought down the government.The TDP’s only intention behind this no-confidence motion was intention to see that Congress MLAs who are in the Jagan Mohan Reddy camp would have to vote in support of the motion and get disqualified.“This appears to be the game plan of the TDP and the Congress,” she said.Vijayamma said it is unfortunate that she was having to vote against a government that had come into being because of the effort of her late husband.He had restored the Congress to power and had made it fit enough to win many more elections.Responding to transport minsiter Botcha Satyanarayana’s barb that Jagan Mohan Reddy was after power, Vijayamma said her son did not beseech Sonia Gandhi to put him in the chief minister’s chair but had only asked to be allowed to take up his Odarpu Yatra.He said she was pained by the way the Congress treated her and her family after the demise of her husband.The Congress government has set the CBI after her son. “You are trying to beat us by locking us up in a room but if this happens we may have to retaliate,” she said. Vijayamma appealed to MLAs who still have affection for YSR to support the no-confidence motion and pull down the Congress government because it was out to damage the image of the late leader.