Anantapur: YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday challenged TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to prove his strength by calling elections in the 20 Assembly segments, from where party MLAs were “purchased.”

“We have never witnessed such a situation in the country. The YSRC MLAs have been given berths in the Cabinet. Mr Naidu encouraged defections by purchasing the Opposition MLAs,” Mr Reddy observed in his first public meeting after embarking on his 3,000-km padayatra at Idupulapaya.

Mr Reddy attacked the government for corruption. “The state turned into corrupt Andhra Pradesh. Mafia is looting villages and we need to bring back the glory as developed Andhra Pradesh by teaching the TD a lesson in the general elections”, he said,

He said the state had failed to secure Central government offices for AP. “There are many Central offices and institutions at Hyderabad but Mr Naidu was unable to convince the Centre to give even one office for the state,” he said, adding, no steps were taken to set up a steel plant at Kadapa which was listed in the post-bifurcation programmes.

Earlier, he started on the Praja Sankalpam Yatra to cover 125 Assembly segments over six months after praying at the grave of his father, the late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

Mr Reddy is expected to meet over two crore people through 5,000 interactions, 180 meetings and 125 public meetings. On the first day, he walked 8.9 km towards Vempalle.