Telugu Desam Party releases factbook on skill development project 

Telugu Desam Party State president K. Atchannaidu.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) State president K. Atchannaidu released a factbook on the skill development project on October 6, while asserting that no scam took place in it and N. Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest for ‘masterminding’ a ‘non-existent scandal’ smacked of political vendetta. 

He said Chandrababu Naidu has been in prison for almost a month, during which period the government made several baseless allegations to show the TDP chief as corrupt to the core, without any evidence that would corroborate the charges framed against him. 

The government implicated Mr. Naidu in the skill development scam and dragged him into the Amaravati Inner Ring Road alignment and FiberNet scams to ensure that he stays in prison for a prolonged time. 

It was all a vicious campaign unleashed by Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy against Mr. Chandrababu Naidu with sheer political motives. 

So far, the CID could not produce concrete evidence of the siphoned funds while the scam was said to be worth about ₹3,300 crore. 

Mr. Atchannaidu said the CID was foolish in making its argument that the donations given to the TDP were nothing but proceeds of the illegal transactions that went into the pockets of Mr. Naidu. 

Not even a single Rupee out of those funds flowed into the personal bank accounts of Mr. Naidu or any of his family members. Like any political party, TDP got donations and also membership fees, which were properly accounted for. 

“The TDP was complying with all  procedures laid down by the Election Commission of India but the CID sought to pick holes in it for obvious reasons,” Mr. Atchannaidu added. 

MLC Panchumarthi Anuradha, MLA Nimmala Rama Naidu, former MLAs Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar and Bonda Umamaheswara Rao and party general secretary Varla Ramaiah were present.