Ex CBI officer throws hat in Andhra poll ring, says both YSRCP, TDP family run parties

Visakhapatnam: VV Lakshmi Narayana, the former IPS officer who shot into fame after he supervised the "quid-pro-quo" case and arrest of YSR Congress chief and incumbent CM, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2012 , has floated a political party and is now contesting assembly polls from Visakhapatnam (North).

The Ex CBI Joint Director's Jai Bharat National Party is contesting 15 Lok Sabha seats (10 in AP and 5 in neighbouring Telangana) and 76 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh.

The retired additional DG rank officer says the agenda of his party is to provide a platform for the people’s voices and provide good governance, if picked by the people, as the the main political parties in the state, the ruling YSR Congress and TDP are family-run parties.

Speaking to PTI here he said his party if voted to power, will cater to the needs of all the people with a focused approach on wealth creation, employment generation and welfare with minimum freebies.

"The agenda is to provide good governance, and a platform to the people. Because now if you see the entire state of Andhra Pradesh, you have one Alliance (NDA) and one party (YSRCP). We need to provide another alternative to the people. Because people have already seen what has happened in the previous five years,” he said.

Hitting out at the major political parties in the state, the former IPS officer alleged the law and order situation in the state is in very bad condition and it should be improved for attracting investments through which youth get jobs.

Outlining his vision for development, Lakshminarayana said there is a lot of potential in AP for the tourism industry and food processing industry can be amplified as the state has an agri-based economy.

"We have 974 km of coastline. What are we doing with that? Have you developed any tourism here? A small state like Goa is thriving in tourism. We have so much coastline , why can't we? That is how we want to do it," he explained.

Asked on national politics, he said NDA's ambitious target of getting more than 400 seats may not be possible. Drawing parallels, he said the earlier government under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also undertook "India Shining" campaign before polls in 2004 and the result was different.

He opined that it is spiritually good that Ram Mandir was constructed after battling 500 years, and that the country should also aim for having "Ram Rajya" for good governance.

Replying to a query on the recent arrests of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and BRS supremo K Chandrsasekhar Rao's daughter in money laundering cases, the retired police official said agencies like ED and CBI should be brought under the purview of Lok Pal, not under ministries in the government.

He said, if elected, his priority is to to see that AP gets the special category status, Steel Plant privatization is stopped and getting a railway zone to Visakhapatnam besides getting all the bifurcation issues resolved.

Narayana unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls on Janasena platform from Visakhapatnam in 2019. Later he quit the party. Elections to 175 Assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha segments in the state will be held on May 13.