Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam government ranking YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy 131 out of 175 MLAs in the state for his functioning as a legislator has rankled the opposition party.

Party spokesperson Ambati Rambabu said MLA Ch. Prabhakar, who is allegedly involved in the attack on a mandal revenue officer, has been ranked above the YSRC chief. Mr Rambabu said this showed how absurd the situation is. Mr Rambabu also alleged that rankings were only meant to divert the people’s attention from the misdeeds of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his government.

Mr Rambabu said, “Mr Naidu is known to do such gimmicks when the image of the government is not very favourable. The survey, purported to be government-sponsored, giving Denduluru MLA Ch Prabhakar, accused in the attack on a lady officer, a better rank makes the intentions clear. Giving Mr Jagan Reddy 131st rank is the height of absurdity.”

He added, “The survey and ranking are coming at a time when the state government’s image is sinking fast with fiasco after fiasco, failure after failure. This shows that it is a damage control exercise and is only an eyewash.”

The YSRC also came down heavily on the TD government for not being able to persuade the Krishna River Management Board for the release of water.

“Governance has gone for a toss to cover up inefficiencies like non-implementation of farm loan waiver, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and pulses, universities no longer being safe for women and belt shops flourishing. The survey and rankings were released to cover up all these and many more,” said Mr Rambabu.