NEW DELHI: TDP MP
Jayadev Galla on Thursday said that Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu is a "threat and an alternative" to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
“Chandrababu Naidu is one of the senior-most leaders in the country. And if he continues to perform in Andhra like he has done in the past, people would be looking at him as a possible leader. He is definitely one of the leaders in the Third Front to challenge Modi’s leadership ... he is a threat to Narendra Modi ... when people talk about an alternative to Modi, he (Naidu) is definitely in that list. Modiji is afraid of the Andhra model of development beating the Gujarat model,” Galla said.
Galla also hit out at the Modi government for “objecting” to a steel plant project in Andhra's
Kadapa for which the Centre had earlier assured support.
“To the utter disappointment of people of Andhra Pradesh, Union ministry of steel submitted a counter-affidavit before the Supreme Court on Wednesday saying the steel plant at Kadapa is not viable,” Galla said at a press conference in the national captial. The latest feasibility report shows that it is a viable project, he claimed.
Lashing out at the Centre, the Lok Sabha MP from Guntur said, “By submitting the affidavit, the Modi regime has shown its true colours once again on its attitude towards people of Andhra,” he said.
According to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, SAIL was supposed to submit a feasibility report on an integrated steel plant in Kadapa district. In December 2014, SAIL said it was not a feasible project. Later, Centre constituted a taskforce on December 7, 2016 to re-examine the issue.
“If the Centre was serious about the interests of Andhra, it would have waited for the taskforce report”, Galla said, adding that, “during the fifth taskforce meeting that happened on December 27, 2017, MECON presented its report which said the steel plant is feasible.”
“The current leadership at the Centre doesn't want to share credit with anybody ... As long as Modi and (Amit) Shah are at the helm, I don't think they're going to help Andhra Pradesh,” Galla said.