Cut ties, TD leaders tell CM N Chandrababu Naidu

HYDERABAD: A discussion has been started in the ruling Telugu Desam in AP on whether it will continue to be politically advantageous to be in alliance with the BJP. Majority of the senior leaders, including a few ministers, say breaking the alliance with the BJP would be advantageous to the TD in the next Assembly elections. In fact, some leaders are pressurising the party chief to break the alliance with the BJP. 

According to the senior TD leaders, in the last four years there has been no benefit to the TD politically with the BJP alliance except for getting ministerial posts in the Union Cabinet.

For quite some time now, the TD leaders have been advising Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to break the alliance with the BJP. After the Budget was announced by the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, some TD leaders have been feeling that AP has been slighted with Budget allocations not been fairly done for the state.

Telugu Desam MPs like J.C. Diwakar Reddy, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao and T.G. Venkatesh openly said that this is the right time for the TD to break the alliance with the BJP. Surprisingly, they all joined the TD from the Congress in 2014 before the elections. Mr Sambasiva Rao and Mr Venkatesh said the TD’s crucial meeting will be held soon and in this meeting a sensational political decision will be taken. 

However, the leaders and ministers close to the CM said, “It is a fact that the CM is also not happy with the Centre, but Mr Naidu knows when the decision has to be taken.”

The TD leaders are of the opinion that in the last four months the Centre did nothing for AP. The state government had an-nounced several schemes and programmes on its own in spite of the financial crisis the state has been facing.

The TD leaders are of the opinion that the rural people are not happy with the Central government. After demonetisation, introduction of GST and the increase of petrol and diesel prices, people are upset with the Central government. 

The TD leaders said if the alliance continues in the next elections, the anger of the people on the Central government will reflect on the TD as well. At the same time, as they are in alliance with the BJP, the TD cannot criticise the BJP either.

Once the alliance breaks, they can strongly criticise the BJP for its step-motherly treatment towards AP. 

A senior minister close to Mr Naidu said the CM will try to maintain the alliance till the last minute and will not take any extreme step immediately. 

In the meeting with party leaders, Mr Naidu had commented, “We are continuing the alliance with the BJP for the sake of the state’s development, not for some political posts in the Centre. If the Centre does not take any steps to sort out pending issues there will be no other way except by saying good-bye to the BJP.”

CM tells partymen again not to criticise BJP government

In the Telugu Desam’s coordination committee meeting on Friday, party national president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu categorically instructed the TD leaders not to criticise the BJP or the Union government at any cost as there was no alternative as of now except move ahead with the BJP alliance. 

Elaborated discussions were held on this in the TD coordination co-mmittee meeting held in the Prajadarbar Hall adjacent to the Chief Minister’s residence in Undavalli. 

Mr. Naidu said, “It would have been more satisfactory if our new state was also given priority in the Union Bu-dget allocation, as given for Mumbai, Karnataka and Ahmedabad.”

In the co-ordination meeting, the Chief Min-ister had taken the opinion of ministers on the Union Budget and most ministers expressed that it might not be favourable for the TD if they remained silent. At the same time they also suggested that the TD should not o overreact as it may disturb the ongoing development projects in the state. 

Reacting to these comments, Mr Naidu said that the best would be to move forward and protect the coalition dharma between the TD and the BJP. He also mentioned about making the final decision after spea-king to the MPs on Saturday.

The Chief Minister said the reason for TD-BJP alliance before 2014 elections was because of the envisaged development of the new born state. 

But the Union Government had failed to protect the State's interests, the CM said. Mr. Naidu questioned aloud about why AP was looked down upon when Mumbai, Karnataka and Ahmedabad were given due importance in the union budget's allocation. 

The Chief Minister, Mr. Naidu even wondered aloud how his ministers would face the public if the Union Government conveniently ignored the State. Mr. Naidu also stated that they were not even in a position to celebrate the State Formation Day.

Reacting to this, the ministers shared that the BJP was probably under the notion that they had fulfilled all the commitments and said that this was also expressed by Mr. Amit Shah in Thursday's meeting with the BJP leaders.

Mr. Naidu finally said that if the public was not satisfied, no government could stand in its place and said that Rajasthan election result was an example of this. Mr. Naidu asked leaders to be more cautious and attentive while addressing public grievances. He stressed upon the need to make the Dalit Tejam programme a success and move forward in line with public sentiments. Mr. Naidu also suggested that the leaders should organize BC and minorities' conventions at constituency levels.