Minister C Ramachandraiah has come out to defend Chiranjeevi over the Bhavani island row. In his first press conference at CLP after becoming a Minister, the former PRP leader alleged that though Chiru had nothing to do with the lease of the Vijayawada island to another Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, TDP was deliberately raking up the issue to target the actor-turned politician.
Taking potshots at Chandrababu Naidu, the Minister said that the TDP leaders were indulging in personal vilification of Chiru, as they were sore with him for splitting the TDP vote in the last assembly elections. The government would defend the lease when the issue came up in the assembly session, but TDP was not interested in facts but in riling at Chiru, he said.
Ramachandraiah had a hard time defending his caustic criticism against TDP and Chandrababu Naidu in the press conference. He was grilled as to how he could sail for a such a long time with a party which he was berating now. The Minister justified his remarks saying he had opposed TDP policies on various issues in the past within the party forums.
The TDP had been alleging that the Kiran government had given away the Bhavani Island for a 33-year lease to Ganta Srinivasa Rao’s Pratyusha Construcitons as a favour for merging his party with the Congress. Chiru was planning to turn this tourist island into a studio for film shootings, the TDP said.
Chiranjeevi also reacted to the criticism saying that he would have constructed a studio long back had he wanted. He also rubbished the allegation that he was a benami of Ganta in the island lease.
