Vijayawada: Perform or perish. This direct and strong message was sent by the TD chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, to his MLAs, at the TDLP meet, convened at Velagapudi on Friday.
An election atmosphere prevailed at the meeting, and Mr Naidu, for the first time, shared details of 40 constituencies, which were difficult or tough to win. The TD chief fixed a target for the MLAs, by stating that only winning horses would be placed in the front row for the 2019 battle.
Categorising the Assembly segments, Mr Naidu said that several constituencies were completely with the TD, while a few others were ready to play the election game and some were tough to win.
In fact, DC reported a month ago, that around 50 to 60 constituencies were going to pose a challenge to the TD, in 2019. Mr Naidu advised the MLAs to be more people-friendly and confine themselves to humble politics.
“Let’s not be over-confident,” Mr Naidu said and added that his first priority would be the 40 constituencies where TD has less chances to get through the elections. He wasn’t too pleased about the attendance of the MLAs in the 11 days of sessions. Mr Naidu said that only 50 MLAs have complete attendance. “24 MLAs were absent for one day, and 11 were absent for two days,” he said. He took to task those MLAs, who were absent for more than 3 days.
Speaking on Centre-state relations, the TD chief said that when Mr Vajpayee offered 7 Cabinet positions in the Union Cabinet, the party had rejected them. “Since we wanted a linkperson, we sent Mr Balayogi as Speaker. Similarly, we have taken only two Cabinet positions this time, to have a perfect liaison with the Union government,” Mr Naidu explained.
Praising the farm ponds done at the initiative of the TD government, he said that Rs 300 crore worth of power has been saved with this exercise and AP is the first state to have accomplished this.
Giving details about his Korean tour, Mr Naidu said that 150 companies will make their presence felt in AP and added that a Korean city would be constructed here in the state.
Mentioning the state’s major initiative in Housing, Mr Naidu said that 18 lakh houses are being built with '50,000 crore. Keeping people’s welfare as the top discipline in the TD government’s agenda, the government has been implementing a ‘womb to tomb’ formula to see that every individual should benefit. By stating that another summit would be organised in January, the TD chief said that the Cabinet would discuss Kapu reservations and unemployment allowance.
