NDA did more for Telangana: Amit Shah

Hyderabad: Brushing aside Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao demand for an apology, BJP national president Amit Shah on Wednesday stood by his statement that the Centre provided over Rs 1 lakh-crore aid to TS.

“I stand by what I said yesterday. The Narendra Modi government gave over '1 lakh-crore aid to Telangana. It’s a fact we are not doing a favour to Telangana. It is the right of Telangana people,” the BJP chief said.

He added, “Telangana people have a right over Narendra Modi government and it’s the duty of the Centre to develop Telangana. But people should know what Congress government gave and what we are giving. Should we tell the people or not? I modestly say we gave '1 lakh-crore more than the Congress.”

Amit Shah was addressing a booth-level committee meeting of Hyderabad Lok Sabha Constituency organised by the party at a function hall in Mehdipatnam that was attended by about 3,000 BJP workers.

Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatreya, TS BJP president K. Laxman, BJLP leader G. Kishan Reddy and other top brass of the party took a dig at MIM and asserted that the BJP can come to power in TS and win the Hyderabad LS seat.

They also condemned the Chief Minister’s comments against Amit Shah.

“BP of our rivals is going up as our party is on expansion mode. They are worried. But I want to make it clear that the Deendayal Vistaran yojana is not to scare anyone and not to defeat anyone. It’s aimed at strengthening the BJP from booth level. We have the right to do so,” he said.

Amit Shah said though he held a press conference in Nalgonda on Tuesday on what PM Modi did for Telangana, confusion prevailed again following a statement by the CM on Wednesday.

“When the Congress was in power, 13th finance commission share in Central tax was meagre. Modi government raised it 10 times. Grant in aid was Rs 2,110 crore then, Modi government gave Rs 9,900 crore now. Local body grant in aid was Rs 249 crore, but now it’s 8,754 crore, we gave Rs 40,800 crore towards infrastructure projects,” he said.

Taking a swipe at the CM again, he said that the BJP rules Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur and said that it will come to power in Telangana too.

“We lost in Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha, but our vote bank increased,” he said.

“Once BJP legislators had to be searched with binoculars. Today we are in power in 13 states, in alliance in four states, have 330 MPs, we are the biggest party, we have a government with absolutely majority.