Press Releases Archive

Loksatta Party national President Dr. Jayaprakash Naarayan today appealed to voters to realize that those who seek to buy their votes with money and liquor are planning to loot the Rs.5.5 lakh the State Government spends on every family for five years.

Addressing a media conference, Dr. JP said that those who spend crores of rupees in elections are setting their eyes on making many times more than their investment through bagging contracts or seeking commissions or land encroachments or brokering deals.

Dr. JP said that Andhra Pradesh has earned dubious distinction by accounting for Rs.124 crore of the total Rs.225 crore and 4.4 lakh liters of the total 5.6 lakh liters of liquor seized all over the country. One out of every five candidates in the electoral race for the Assembly is facing some criminal case or other and one out of every seven candidates, a case of murder or rape.

Dr. JP said that people should not view elections as a 20-20 cricket match but as an exercise that has a bearing on their future. On a visit to a slum at Balamrai in Secunderabad Cantonment constituency this morning, a woman told him that she threw away the cooked rice as it was unfit to consume. “Have we asked you to supply such rotten rice at one rupee a kg?” The 6th and 7th class children on whom they spend Rs.500 to Rs.600 a month on fees cannot do a simple division. The residents asked whether the Government cannot ensure even power supply.

Politics, said Dr. JP, should bring about a change in people’s lives and not in one leader or party being replaced by another. It is possible only when the Government ensures quality education, healthcare and employment opportunities to all. Touching upon healthcare in the country, Dr. JP said it is distressing that 12000 new TB cases are being reported every day in India although drugs to cure TB have been there for more than five decades.

Unlike other political parties, the Loksatta is focusing on people’s problems and providing concrete solutions.

Dr. JP called upon voters not to take the ensuing elections lightly since they have the potential to change the country’s destiny. They should defer travel, brave the heat and make it a point to vote.

He reiterated that in the fight between dharma and money in Malkajgiri from where he is contesting for the Lok Sabha, people are overwhelmingly standing for dharma.

Mr. Bandaru Ramamohan Rao, Convener of the party’s Telangana Coordination Committee, took part in the media conference.