Parties living in glass houses hurling Stones at Lok Satta: Dr. JP

Traditional parties have trained their guns on the Lok Satta Party as they are unable to stomach its growing popularity, said Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan here today.

Welcoming a number of youth including some from the Congress and the TRS from Serilingampalli into the party, Dr. JP congratulated them on choosing the party which is committed to ushering in corruption-free politics.

Dr. JP charged the traditional parties with being mired in corruption. A cursory look at their finances revealed they ran their parties with black money. The Congress which ruled the States and the country for many, many years said it received in all only Rs.8 crore by way of donations during 2007-08. The TDP which ruled Andhra Pradesh for 16 years maintained it received only Rs.61 lakh. “Every one knows it costs Rs.25 crore-Rs.30 crore to organize a meeting of either a Sonia Gandhi or a Rajiv Gandhi or a TDP’s ‘garjana’. They spend unaccounted money and to raise it they perpetuate corruption. In contrast, the Lok Satta received donations by cheque and issued receipts for every rupee it received.”

The Lok Satta President contrasted the methods of working of the Lok Satta with those of the traditional parties by pointing out that while the Lok Satta got a school renovated by collecting donations, leaders of traditional parties occupied the land of another school -- both in Hydernagar in Serilingampalli constituency.

Talking to the media, party spokesmen Katari Srinivasa Rao and V. Laxman Balaji dubbed the charges of some people claiming to be Telangana leaders as lies. They were merely repeating allegations leveled by TDP leaders. They pointed out that it was the Lok Satta alone which gave tickets to downtrodden sections in 100 of the 200 seats. The party which contested 248 Assembly seats allocated 88 seats to backward classes. In addition to reserved seats, the party allocated 12 more general seats to SCs and STs.