New Delhi, Feb 4: Days after he hinted at breaking alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu called up Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday. The telephonic conversation between the two leaders assumes importance as Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has already announced it will contest the 2019 elections independently, without an alliance with the BJP.
However, a senior sena leader said that there is nothing new to it as leaders keep talking to each other. “The call lasted for 10 minutes and they discussed the political scenario in India,” he added.
A few days back, while responding to a question on the critical remarks made by some BJP leaders against his government, CM Naidu had said, “If they don’t want an alliance, we will do the ‘namaskaram’ and chart our own course.”
Chandrababu Naidu had also called a meeting with party leaders in Amaravati after Union Budget to discuss the future course of action. After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Budget 2018, TDP leader YS Chowdhary had expressed disappointment over the resources allocated for Andhra Pradesh.
“People and the party are disappointed with the Union Budget presented today. Many state issues like Railway Zone, Polavaram project funding, funding for capital Amaravati and other pending issues of Andhra Pradesh were not addressed in the budget,”news agency PTI had quoted the Minister of State for Science and Technology as saying.