Jaganmohan Reddy, the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has accused his successor Chandrababu Naidu of being responsible for the continuing political violence in the state. Holding an exhibition at Delhi's India International Centre as part of his protest, he said, "It is clear why Chandrababu Naidu is doing this. He had promised the people heaven and the moon, knowing very well they are lies... Those kind of promises are not going to be met".
"If this is not condemned, tomorrow when we are in power, this will become a new trend. When we were in power, we did not do such a thing... Law and order have deteriorated," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
The exhibition of photos and videos, which Mr Reddy's party claims are from the continuing violence, was visited yesterday by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. Asked whether it was a signal of political realignment, 51-year-old shot back, "Let us not deviate from the issue… We have invited every political party irrespective of ideology".
"There have been past incidents in Andhra, which should have been condemned. Chandrababu Naidu's own son Nara Lokesh, actually, comes up with a red book like this, and makes hoardings of this red book and printed across state, and openly says we are going to penalise officers," he said.
The reference was to a red book Mr Naidu's son had carried around during his march across the state ahead of the Lok Sabha election. He claimed the book contained the names of the corrupt leaders in Jagan Reddy's government. Mr Reddy said it contained the names of key leaders of his party who were being killed one after the other.
"It was a message to the police that 'Our people will go on rampage, you stay and watch'," he alleged. "The last 45 days show what these posters say have become real. These posters are material evidence," he added.
Violence had broken out in Andhra Pradesh before the Lok Sabha election in May, in which Mr Naidu's party swept to power.
For days, cadres of Mr Reddy's YSR Congress and Mr Naidu's Telugu Desam Party had clashed in multiple pockets of the state including Palnadu, Ananthapuramu and Tirupati districts, where the violence was accompanied by arson. Investigations were ordered by the Election Commission at the time.