Vijayawada: Ahead of Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh and Lok Sabha polls, former CBI Joint Director V. V. Lakshmi Narayana on Friday floated a new political party to fight for special category status to the state.
At an event in Vijayawada, he announced the launch of the Jai Bharat National Party.
He said that the main reason for high unemployment is the state not getting special category status.
Alleging that the YSRCP, the TDP, and the Jana Sena have all sidelined the issue of special category status, he said the JBNP will bring the issue to mainstream discussion.
Lakshmi Narayana recalled that special category status to Andhra Pradesh was promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 and said all parties failed to achieve this despite making tall claims.
He said the state lost three opportunities to demand the Centre to accord special category status.
The former IPS officer said the party will bring a change in the politics.
“At a time when politics is considered as betraying people, Jai Bharat Party has born to show that politics means bringing good governance,” he said.
Lakshmi Narayana had joined the Jana Sena party of actor politician Pawan Kalyan just before the 2019 elections. He had unsuccessfully contested the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat on Jana Sena ticket. In 2020, he quit the Jana Sena citing Pawan Kalyan’s decision to return to films as the reason for his exit.
Lakshmi Narayana had taken voluntary retirement in 2018. He was then serving as the Additional Director General of Police (Planning and Coordination) in Maharashtra. While serving as the Joint Director of the CBI, he had investigated the disproportionate assets charges made against YSRCP President Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and arrested him.
Popular as JD in Telugu states, he is also well known as a motivational speaker.
–IANS