Veligonda water opens a credit war between Naidu, Lokesh and Jagan

The same day Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated Phase-I of the Poola Subbaiah Veligonda irrigation project, Andhra Pradesh’s politics split into a credit war over who actually built the water path through the Nallamala. The infrastructure cutting belongs elsewhere; this one records the political clash that erupted on 31 August 2026.

Former chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy posted on X that Veligonda was his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s dream. He claimed the hardest twin-tunnel works were completed during the YSRCP tenure and accused Naidu of rewriting history. In that claim set, Jagan said 20.33 kilometres of tunnel work belonged to his government’s account, against a smaller length in Naidu’s 2014–19 term. Those tunnel-length figures are Jagan’s claim and are recorded as such.

TDP working president and minister Nara Lokesh replied on X that Jagan was claiming credit for an incomplete project. Lokesh’s line was that the present NDA government finished pending works and is the one delivering water. The exchange therefore turned on a classic Indian irrigation-politics question: is credit owed for tunnelling progress, or for water actually released to fields and taps?

Naidu, speaking at Gantavanipalli, went further in tone. He called YSRCP the Axe Party, alleged a fake inauguration just before the 2024 polls while works worth about ₹4,000 crore were still pending, and alleged that only 2.7 percent of works were completed in the YSRCP tenure. He said a tunnel-boring machine stuck in the tunnels was cleared only after 2024. Reporting also noted his charge that the previous government issued a government order for displaced families but made only partial payments.

Stripped of slogans, the public can test a few documented contrasts. One side emphasises tunnel metres and lineage to Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. The other emphasises pending packages, a stuck TBM, partial rehabilitation payments, and the claim that water delivery follows the post-2024 completion push. Farmers who see water in Nallamala Sagar will decide which story feels true on the ground; the political class is already deciding which story to campaign on.

This cutting keeps irrigation acreage, TMC figures and rehabilitation rupee totals in the Development Veligonda piece. Here the record is the same-day political fight: Jagan’s X claim of tunnel credit, Lokesh’s rebuttal that credit for an incomplete project is empty, and Naidu’s Gantavanipalli attack alleging a pre-poll fake inauguration while about ₹4,000 crore of work remained. No side is awarded the last word. The water and the speeches arrived together; voters will separate them in their own time.