Centre conspiring against AP and TD, alleges Chandrababu Naidu

Vijayawada: Telugu Desam chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who quit the National Democratic Alliance on Friday, has come down hard on the BJP leadership and warned that the politics they played in Tamil Nadu will not be tolerated in Andhra Pradesh. 

The TD president alleged that the top leadership in Delhi was trying to replicate the Tamil Nadu experiment in AP, thereby destabilising the TD government by instigating forces like Pawan Kalyan of the Jana Sena. 

Mr Naidu alleged that the Union government was conspiring against his state with the connivance of elements in AP. “The players in the game are in the state. They (the central government) are trying to weaken the politically strong states through the Tamil Nadu type of politics. But neither Andhra Pradesh nor Telugu Desam is so vulnerable as to become victims. We will block those attempts. Those who conspire against us will bite the dust,” Mr Naidu thundered while addressing the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council on Friday. “Since it could not do anything to us on its own, the BJP is instigating others and trying to interfere in Andhra politics like it did in Tamil Nadu. Should I get scared like a coward if Narendra Modi or NDA government instigates others against us?” Mr Naidu queried.

He explained the reasons for pulling out of the Union government: “We have quit the NDA. I took the decision not for selfish reasons, but for the interests of AP. For four years I made all efforts, went to Delhi 29 times, asked many times. This was the Centre’s last Budget and there was no mention of AP, so we had to pull our ministers out of the Cabinet a week back, and now from the NDA completely,” Mr Naidu said in his address.

It wasn’t right to entertain economic offenders at the Prime Minister’s residence and it is unethical to support them to corner the TD, Mr Naidu said, referring to the YSR Congress, whose leader Jagan Mohan Reddy faces corruption charges. 

He questioned what kind of signals it sends out to the public if economic offenders are seen at the Prime Minister’s office and the President office. Mr Naidu also questioned if the relaxation of assets from ED is because of these visits and the Centre’s increasingly cordial relations with the YSRC.

Mr Naidu wanted to know why the Prime Minister doesn’t have the time to speak to the Members of Parliament who have been protesting in Parliament and warned that the TD has been a main opposition in Parliament and it was not wise to look down upon it.