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Modi's 10-min talk changed Naidu's mind? TDP presser shortly; 10 highlights

Amid deteriorating ties between TDP and BJP, two BJP ministers in the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet tendered their resignations to the Chief Minister's office

BS Web Team  |  New Delhi 

N Chandrababu Naidu
File photo of N Chandrababu Naidu

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday tried to break the stalemate over the 'special status' tussle between the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government by speaking to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu over phone. The government failed to placate its upset ally Telegu Desam Party (TDP) as two TDP ministers — Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary — submitted their resignations on Thursday morning over Centre’s refusal to grant Special Category Status to the state. The two TDP ministers are set to meet Modi at 6 pm today and the press briefing will be held at 6:45 pm.
After N Chandrababu Naidu asked TDP ministers to resign from the Union Cabinet, two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers in the state Cabinet — State Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and State Endowment Minister Pydikondala Manikyala Rao — also submitted their resignations.

“This is the first step. We will go ahead with other actions later,” Naidu said. "You are holding the hand of the North Eastern states but not Andhra Pradesh's. You are giving industrial incentives to them, not to Andhra Pradesh. Why this discrimination?"

TDP was an ally of the BJP during the NDA-I years from 1998 to 2004, and then again from 2014 onwards.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday promised that funding equivalent to special-category status would be provided to Andhra Pradesh. He said granting the status to any state except for Northeast and three hilly provinces would not be constitutionally possible after the implementation of the 14th Finance Commission.

For special category status, the Centre gives 90 per cent of the funds required in a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) as against 60 per cent in case of normal category states. The remaining is provided by the state government. The Centre committed to provide 90 per cent of the funds through external agencies like World Bank, the Naidu government wanted the funds to come through National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development (Nabard).

Here are the top 10 developments around Chandrababu Naidu pulling the TDP out of the NDA:

1) Classic case of opportunistic politics: "BJP considers it as a classic case of opportunistic politics by Chandrababu Naidu. It's also politics of convenience," Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said.
"In 2018, one year before the elections again, he (Naidu) withdraws conveniently. The very reason for his withdrawal is to ensure that the BJP does not grow by itself and acquire equity, politically, in Andhra Pradesh," Rao told PTI. On what the BJP's approach should now be vis-a-vis TDP, he appeared to indicate that the Naidu-led outfit would snap ties with the NDA.

"We also look at this event (TDP's decision to quit the NDA government) which happened yesterday as an opportunity for the BJP to rise in Andhra Pradesh by itself," Rao said. "We look at it as a silver lining, and as a historic opportunity to disconnect from the TDP, and give the BJP a clear and open chance to grow itself (in Andhra Pradesh), and to get the kind of mandate which people across the country have given to BJP state after state.”

He alleged that the issue of special category status (SCS) is being used to mislead the people.

2) Rajya Sabha adjourned: Rajya Sabha proceedings were washed out for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday amid uproar by opposition members and those from the NDA ally TDP over special category status. Several members raised slogans, forcing Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to adjourn the House till 2 pm. Ashok Gajapathi Raju was not present in the House even though it was the question day of his ministry. However, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha was present.

3) Shiv Sena says overconfident' NDA doesn't share good relations with allies: "Other parties have walked out of NDA too. Allies no longer have good relations with BJP. Gradually their grudges will spill out and eventually they'll walk out of the alliance," said Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who represents Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha. He said that he saw this coming.


Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said the BJP had become overconfident and would face challenges in 2019 general elections. "Former NDA leaders had kept the alliance together. Now it's overconfident. 2019 will be challenging for the BJP," she said.
4) Ramdas Athawale bats for TDP-BJP patch up: Senior Congress party leader Renuka Chowdhury termed the rift between BJP and its coalition partner TDP as 'sabre-rattling', adding that if the TDP wanted they would have pulled out of the alliance.

"I don't understand what are they trying to do, it is sabre-rattling. What was the government doing till now? They are still pretending to withdraw and not doing it and just getting two ministers resign. It is unfortunate," said the Rajya Sabha MP, who comes from Andhra Pradesh.

Another Congress MP Ahmed Patel also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his handling of the crisis, where the TDP is seeking Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.


5) Chandrababu Naidu alleges discrimination by Centre: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that Jaitley's statement on Wednesday that his state could not be granted a special-category status was not good, news agency ANI reported. "You are holding hand of the North Eastern states but not Andhra Pradesh's. You are giving industrial incentives to them, not to Andhra Pradesh. Why this discrimination?" Naidu said in the state Assembly.


TDP MP YS Chowdary and Ashok Gajapathi Raju will give a statement in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, respectively, according to news agency ANI. Commenting on the BJP-TDP split, YS Chowdary said it was not a good move but, unfortunately, due to unavoidable circumstances, he and Gajapathi Raju were stepping down as ministers. "Our President said that we will continue to be a partner of NDA. We are most likely to meet PM also," he added.


6) TDP MPs protest outside Parliament: Continuing with their demands for their state, TDP MPs on Thursday protested inside the Parliament premises for granting special-category status to Andhra Pradesh, news agency ANI reported.


TDP MP Ram Mohan Naidu told news agency ANI: "It's the decision we took after Arun Jaitley's statement". Naidu said that when the TDP was asking for its right, it could not be rejected. "Alliance is still under negotiation. We don't want to make it a political fight between TDP and BJP but a fight for the state," he added.

The TDP was not alone, though. YSR Congress MPs also protested outside Parliament on Thursday for granting special-category status to Andhra Pradesh, according to news agency ANI.


7) Two TDP ministers resign from Modi Cabinet: Our ministers in the central Cabinet have resigned, N Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday in the state Assembly.

The two TDP ministers in the Modi government on Wednesday night were instructed to resign from the Union Cabinet on Thursday by Chandrababu Naidu. The TDP ministers concerned are Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary.

According to sources, while Naidu consulted with his party legislators in Amaravati, Civil Aviation Minister Raju attended the Wednesday meeting of the Union Cabinet. According to news agencies, nearly all TDP legislators and Members of Parliament (MPs) urged Naidu to walk out of the NDA.


On Wednesday, Naidu had said that Jaitley's announcement was the "last straw" for him. Following mounting pressure from the Opposition, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister had repeatedly insisted on a special category status for his state. Naidu added that Jaitley's statement was nothing but insulting to the TDP.

The TDP supremo and chief minister added that as a courtesy, he had tried to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone to inform him about the decision to pull out of the NDA government. "It is my responsibility as a coalition partner to inform the prime minister about our party's decision. My OSD spoke to his OSD but the prime minister did not come on line," he said.

Naidu said Jaitley's comments suggested that Andhra Pradesh was asking for too much. He also slammed the finance minister for saying "sentiments will not decide the quantum of funds". He said that he made 29 trips to Delhi, met with Prime Minister Modi and other ministers, and tried to do his best to do justice to his state. "I am not angry with anybody," he added.

Naidu hoped that at least now the Centre would respect the sentiment of Andhra Pradesh's people.

8) Two BJP ministers in Andhra government submit resignation: Amid deteriorating ties between TDP and BJP, two BJP ministers in the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet submitted their resignations at the Chief Minister's office on Thursday. The ministers who have submitted their resignation from Chandrababu Naidu's Cabinet are State Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and State Endowment Minister Pydikondala Manikyala Rao.

The BJP MLAs were given ministerial berths as coalition partner.


Earlier, BJP leader P V N Madhav had told news agencies, "Our ministers will resign from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Cabinet." Madhav had said, "We have decided that our ministers will resign from TDP Cabinet. We will be going to the people and telling them all the things Centre has done for the state. Since independence till date, no state has received as many favours as those that were given to Andhra Pradesh."


9) BJP says it went 'out of its way' for Andhra: The BJP has rejected Chandrababu Naidu's charge that the Centre has neglected Andhra Pradesh. The party said that the Centre had not only fulfilled all its obligations but also gone out of its way to help the state.

BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said that the Modi government had worked to ensure that Andhra Pradesh received full resources in the infrastructure and industrial sectors after the bifurcation of the state. Political parties in Andhra Pradesh had been raking up the demand for a special category status for the state without acknowledging that the Centre had offered the state all the benefits without giving this tag, which had become redundant after the 14th Finance Commission report, Rao said. He added that a special category status had ceased to exist.

10) Congress says TDP move 'too little, too late': On Wednesday, the Congress said that the TDP's decision to pull out of the NDA government at the Centre was "too little, too late". The party added that TDP had "done nothing" to protect Andhra Pradesh's interests in the past four years.

"This is too little and too late. The TDP has been an ally of the BJP for four years now and has done nothing to protect the interests of Andhra Pradesh," senior Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh and former Union minister M M Pallam Raju said.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi batted for a special-category status for Andhra Pradesh. The Congress President announced this after he joined a protest at Jantar Mantar demanding a 'special status' for the state. MPs of the TDP and the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) had staged the protest.

Gandhi told the TDP and YSRCP MPs that the Congress party was in favour of granting a special status to Andhra Pradesh. He added that if the Congress came to power in 2019, it would ensure the same.

Later, he tweeted that the united Opposition could force the BJP-led Union government to do justice to the people of Andhra Pradesh.
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First Published: Thu, March 08 2018. 17:53 IST

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