Hyderabad: Days after two of its MPs resigned from the Union cabinet, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) finally decided to quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday. The decision was taken during a teleconference held between Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and other politburo members of the TDP early in the morning, said officials from Naidu’s office.
Though a formal announcement is yet to be made by Naidu, officials from the Andhra Pradesh chief minister office (CMO) confirmed the development and stated that the same has been communicated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Prior to this, union ministers P. Ashok Gajapati Raju and Y. S. Chowdary had quit the union cabinet on 8 March over non-fulfillment of promises as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act and not giving Andhra Pradesh special category status, which has become a matter of political contention over the last few months.
According to TDP leaders, the decision was earlier supposed to be taken during the party’s politburo meeting on Friday evening, but was advanced. “The decision to leave the NDA was unanimously backed by all the TDP leaders,” said a senior member of the party, not willing to be identified. The development comes just two days after TDP’s alliance partner and Jana Sena party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan made corruption allegations against Naidu’s government and his son Nara Lokesh (who is also the state IT minister).
Naidu has been at loggerheads with the centre and BJP over funding to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget 2018, ever since it was released in February, claiming that the state was not given its due.
“TDP’s decision to quit was inevitable after its mischievous propaganda against Centre. People of AP have now realised that the TDP is resorting to lies to cover up its inept & inert governance. Far from being a threat, TDP’s exit is a timely opportunity for the BJP to grow in AP,” tweeted BJP’s national spokesperson G. V. L. Narasimha Rao after the development.
The main opposition in Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) had already issued a no-confidence motion a day earlier. The TDP on the other hand said that it will issue a separate one on Monday after gathering support from 50 MPs, as required. Meanwhile, opposition parties have been holding discussions over a possible support to a no-confidence motion against NDA. According to rules, such a motion can be accepted only if it has the support of at least 50 members of the House.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has already offered its support to such a move. “CPI(M) supports the no-confidence motion being brought against the BJP government. Its betrayal of the promise of special status for Andhra Pradesh is inexcuseable. Its all-round failure and evasion of parliamentary accountability needs to be highlighted,” party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in a statement.
Congress party has been more cautious in its response and has said that it is in touch with other political parties over support to the motion.
“We have been supporting Special Category Status for AP since the beginning. We want that people of AP to get justice. When no-confidence motion is moved you have to talk about government’s failures, we contacting a lot of people,” Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha told news agency ANI.
West Bengal chief minister and chief of Trinamool Congress (TMC) Mamata Banerjee has also virtually offered her support to such a motion by saying that TDP’s decision to quit NDA was welcomed and that other opposition parties should join hands.