Immediately after announcing his party's merger with Congress, Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi today launched a scathing attack on one of the icons of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy, saying corruption was at its worst in the state during his regime.
He also said the Congress has always been quick in taking action against its corrupt members be it Adarsh housing case or Commonwealth or second-generation mobile telephony spectrum scam and gave a clean chit to the Rosaiah and the current Kiran Kumar Reddy governments in the state on the issue of corruption.
"Corruption was at its worst only during the reign of the late chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. I launched the party in 2008 on the plank of fighting corruption," he told a press conference after announcing his decision to merge PRP with the Congress.
He also suggested that he was forced to launch PRP on the plank of fighting corruption and ensuring social justice due to "rampant corruption" during the late YSR's regime.
The PRP chief also said he came to know only through media recently that the late YSR wrote a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi saying that PRP members should be inducted into the state cabinet to strengthen the party.
Chiranjeevi was all praise for Gandhi, saying she was quick in taking action against corrupt people in her party and the government.
"Congress takes quick action against corruption. Everyone knows what happened in the cases of Adarsh, Commonwealth and 2G spectrum scam. Those accused were asked to quit," he said.
He also hoped that Gandhi would continue her "crusade against corruption".
