Pawan Kalyan wants to do away with volunteers, Chandrababu Naidu desires to continue

AMARAVATI: At a time when Jana Sena Party (JSP) President Pawan Kalyan is training his guns at volunteers accusing them of being involved in human trafficking in Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Chief N Chandrababu Naidu has taken a diametrically opposite stand and has vowed to continue their services, if voted to power.

The JSP Chief’s controversial remarks has put his prospective alliance partner Chandrababu Naidu in a tough spot. While Naidu did not critcise Pawan Kalyan for his vague remarks on volunteers, he said that their services should be confined to serving the people and involving them for political purposes was not acceptable.

“Volunteers gathering personal information of individuals is highly objectionable and a threat to people’s privacy. We will examine all the possibilities of confining volunteer services to the people if the TDP voted to power,” Chandrababu Naidu said during a media interaction on Wednesday.

It may be recalled that TDP National General Secretary Nara Lokesh even said during his ‘Yuvagalam’ padayatra in Kurnool that there was no need for the village/ward volunteers to worry about their jobs if the TDP came to power. He added that they would get better job security.

On the other hand, Vijayawada TDP MP Kesineni Srinivas Nani was the only TDP party functionary to criticise Pawan Kalyan. “Earlier, during TDP's rule, Janabhoomi committees used to address the problems of the people in the State. After YSRCP came to power, it introduced a volunteer system and there is not much difference in their deliverables. It is not correct to criticise all the volunteers,” the MP said.

The TDP MP added that every political system has both its pros and cons while running an administration. Moreover, officials, MPs and volunteers should work independently irrespective of political party affiliations, the MP said.