Liquor scam a political conspiracy fabricated by Naidu

Tirupati, August 23: Former Deputy Chief Minister K. Narayanaswamy came down heavily on Chandrababu Naidu, accusing him of fabricating the so-called “liquor scam” purely for political vendetta. Addressing the media at the Tirupati Press Club, alongside Nellore YSRCP coordinator K. Krupalakshmi, Narayanaswamy said Naidu was using SIT probes, false cases, and yellow media propaganda to divert public attention from his own failures and corruption.
“At 76, with failing health, I stepped aside from electoral politics last year. Yet, Chandrababu continues to target me with fabricated cases. SIT officials themselves found nothing, but yellow media spun tales of laptops seized, cash counted, and arrests made. I never even used a laptop, how could they claim one was seized from me?” he asked.
Narayanaswamy reminded that under YSRCP, liquor policy was implemented with utmost transparency, government-run shops, reduced timings, closure of 43,000 belt shops, and no new distillery permissions. As a result, liquor consumption came down while state revenues rose from Rs. 17,341 crore (2018–19) under TDP to Rs. 25,082 crore (2023–24). “If sales fell but revenue rose due to taxation, where is the scope for scams?” he questioned.
He slammed Chandrababu for presiding over the real liquor mafia, proliferation of private shops, permit rooms, and belt shops, selective favors to distilleries, and scrapping privilege fees that caused Rs.5,000 crore losses to the state.
“Today’s coalition government has turned liquor sales into a mafia-run loot. From dawn till dawn, liquor is sold illegally, over MRP, with door delivery. This is the biggest scam ever. And to cover it up, Chandrababu manufactures lies against us,” Narayanaswamy said.