Balineni claims he had predicted Congress win in Telangana, but withdrew bet for son’s sake

ONGOLE: Former minister and Ongole MLA Balineni Srinivasa Reddy made interesting comments on the Telangana Assembly election results. He claimed that he had predicted the victory of the Congress party and even placed a bet on it. However, he withdrew from the bet due to his son.

Speaking at an event held here on Sunday, Srinivasa Reddy said that he had predicted 55 seats for the Congress and believed that the TDP had campaigned for the Congress in the Assembly elections in Telangana. N Chandrababu Naidu would become Chief Minister in Andhra Pradesh if the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) won in Telangana. The TDP would have intensified their celebrations if the Congress had won seats in Greater Hyderabad, he said.

Taking potshots at Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan, Srinivasa Reddy remarked that both leaders lacked ethics in politics, as they supported different parties in Telangana despite having an alliance between them in Andhra Pradesh. Refuting allegations of taking money while in office, the former minister defended himself by stating that it would not be wrong for him to accept party funds.

The former minister said that he was not the type of person to stoop so low and highlighted that he used his own money for public welfare. He mentioned having debts of Rs 15 crore from the TDP leaders and criticized them for making baseless accusations against him. He also claimed that the people of the district knew how much land was given to the people in the land ceiling act brought by Indira Gandhi.

Srinivasa Reddy strongly also criticized TDP leaders for making derogatory remarks about Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's visit to Bapatla to assess the damage caused by the cyclone Michaung. “Why did Chandrababu Naidu ever visit the people on a bicycle when he served as the Chief Minister?”

The former minister said that the people were satisfied with the Chief Minister's proactive response to the cyclone and blamed the previous Government for neglecting the Gundlakamma project, which led to chaos. He confidently expressed that the YSRCP would win with a significant majority in the 2024 elections and added that YS Jagan would once again become the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.