The news report carried by national English daily Hindustan Times stating that the Income Tax department has issued a show-cause notice to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, has come as a big opportunity for the YSR Congress party to launch an attack on the TDP and Naidu.
It has been four days since the report was published by the national daily, but it has failed to generate the kind of sensation which the YSRCP was expecting.
Except Sakshi media house owned by YSRC president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, it has not been highlighted by any other media house.
Expectedly, pro-TDP newspapers like Eenadu or Andhra Jyothy and their affiliated television channels have not carried even a small news about the I-T notices to Naidu. A couple of channels like NTV and TV-9 reported it but not extensively to expose the TDP chief.
The other English and Hindi media houses did not give much importance to the development, obviously because it was published by a rival English daily and so, they don’t want give any credit to HT.
Even the YSRC media managers have failed to capitalise on the I-T notices. While they could not get the original I-T notice copy served on Naidu, they managed to get the confession statement of Manoj Vasudev Pardasany (MVP) who allegedly took part in the tendering process in Amaravati projects since December 2017 on behalf of Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Pvt Ltd (SPCL).
But even this statement was not highlighted much in the media. Surprisingly, even the YSRC leaders did not react as strongly as they are expected to, except Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and a couple of leaders like Gudivada Amarnath, Perni Nani and Anil Kumar Yadav.
Forget Naidu, even the other TDP leaders, who generally give a strong retort to any criticism from the YSRC, have preferred to remain tightlipped. They neither issued a statement nor did they address any press conference to shoot back at the critics.
Surprisingly, there has been unusual silence even from the other opposition parties like the Congress, the Communists, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena. None of these party leaders made any statement on the I-T notices to Naidu. Even when Sakshi media reporters asked any leaders, they refused to make any comment on the issue.
So, the YSRC has failed to get the kind of political mileage from such a sensational development. Maybe, the absence of YSRC president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the state might have resulted in a kind of lethargy in the party cadres!
