Hyderabad: Keeping up the pressure on its ally BJP, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has given a notice for suspension of all business in Rajya Sabha on Monday to discuss the Andhra Pradesh reorganisation package and special grants to the state.
This comes a day after the TDP decided to remain in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and said it will continue to demand a special package for Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing the media after Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu chaired a crucial meeting of party MPs and senior leaders on Sunday, TDP minister YS Chowdary said the matter would be raised in Parliament if needed.
“During the meeting, the Union Budget and the absence of allocations to Andhra Pradesh were discussed. We will continue pressurising the Centre for it. We will also raise the matter in Parliament if needed,” Chowdary said. The emergency meeting had been called by Naidu after Andhra Pradesh failed to get substantial budgetary allocations in the Union budget for many key projects. This was the Modi government’s last complete Budget before the 2019 General Elections.
“We are going to declare war (on the BJP). We now have three options. One is to try and continue. The second is that our MPs resign and the third is breaking off this alliance. We will decide (our course of action) in a meeting with CM Naidu on Sunday,” TG Venkatesh, TDP MP, said outside Parliament on Friday.
Lack of Andhra-centric sops in the Budget had brought the rift between the TDP and the BJP out in the open. Naidu has been disappointed for a long time that Andhra Pradesh is being denied promised financial assistance by the BJP-led Centre, despite the state reeling under financial crisis ever since its bifurcation.
The resentment grew after state BJP leaders started making public comments against "friendly" ally in the state.
The opposition had been quick to take advantage of the situation.
YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “The Budget is approved by the Union Cabinet which has two TDP ministers. The theatrics of Chandrababu Naidu will not work. The Union Budget is a collective decision and TDP cannot refrain from taking back the blame that state interests have been ignored. He is acting as if NDA government has presented Budget for the first time and they served a raw deal to the state."
"Did he not feel the pinch when he watered down on the demand of special status? Chandrababu Naidu may promise the moon to the people, but use your discretion in ensuing elections," Reddy added.
With elections just around the corner, the pressure is building on Naidu to deliver on his promises of development, which brought the TDP-BJP alliance to power in the state.
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