'LSP will win more seats than TRS'

The Lok Satta Party (LSP) has refuted the charges made against party president Jayaprakash Narayan by his Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) rival in Kukatpally, Sudarshan Rao, in a television programme. Here is the LSP’s point by point rebuttal.

Assuming that JP gets elected, what can he accomplish as a single MLA? The LSP says that it will win more seats than the TRS. Moreover, the LSP has invoked its sense of purpose and credibility and said one LSP MLA is equivalent to 100 MLAs from other parties.

Lok Satta is all talk and no action.

The LSP lists its achievements: Right to Information Law, Political Funding Law, Citizen’s Charters in municipalities, Candidate Assets’ Disclosure Law, campaign against criminalisation of politics and empowerment of local government.

What has the LSP president done before and what will he do for the constituency? JP has rehabilitated thousands of families displaced by the Vizag Steel Plant. As Collector of Prakasam district, he brought 1,60,000 acres under irrigation and turned around the AP State Co-operative Bank. His plans for the constituency include consistent supply of safe drinking water and plan to tackle drainage system, housing plan to let slum dwellers live with dignity, access to quality education to every child from 1-12 standard, citizen access to free healthcare and reskilling programme for the unemployed.

JP will be inaccessible to the people in the constituency.

The LSP has reacted by saying that their party president will not be accessible to goondas and land-grabbers but to everyone else.

Where is social justice in Lok Satta? The LSP has asserted that it understands the term better than `all these candidates’. Even if the term is narrowly defined, then for 249 Assembly seats, the LSP has nominated 88 BCs, 42 SCs, 15 STs, 10 minorities, 28 women and one physically challenged candidate.