CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy on Saturday said the anti-people policies, attacks on SCs and minorities, and cooperation being extended to economic offenders such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi to escape to foreign countries were the highlights of the RSS-controlled NDA government.

‘Neoliberal policies’

Addressing a ‘Maha Garjana’ of the Left parties, the Jana Sena Party, the Lok Satta Party, and other entities here, Mr. Reddy said corruption had been another hallmark of the NDA government as evident from the Panama and Sahara papers.

It was high time the BJP paid the price for its “neoliberal policies” and for troubling the people through demonetisation and many other actions that only benefited the affluent sections.

“The Left parties have been working on an alternative to the BJP. The like-minded forces should join hands with the CPI and the CPI(M), which may have no representation in Parliament but have the backing of the masses who are desperate for a change,” he observed.

Mr. Reddy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to bring back black money of approximately ₹71 lakh crore stashed abroad by some 5,000 Indians. He said corruption was rampant in Andhra Pradesh. He questioned whether Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu would apologise for appointing Sekhar Reddy, from whose house ₹2.50 crore cash and gold worth ₹10 crore to ₹15 crore had been seized, as a member of the TTD Trust Board. He alleged that two main parties were preparing to spend up to ₹20 crore in each constituency during the coming elections.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said the efforts of the Left parties to build an alternative to the BJP should be strengthened.

CPI(M) State secretary P. Madhu, CPI’s K. Ramakrishna, and JSP leader Chintala Parthasarathy were among those who spoke. Earlier, massive rallies were taken out from the railway station and Gunadala to the venue of the public meeting.