“The BJP is committed to making Visakhapatnam the headquarters of a separate railway zone. We had agreed to it in the past, and we still believe in it. It is only a matter of time,” BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav has said.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, Mr. Ram Madhav said, “There are some bureaucratic and administrative issues, and once those are settled, the railway zone will be a reality.”
Housing
Coming down heavily on Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s campaign style, he said, “Mr. Naidu is good at indulging in negative campaign. He is putting his pictures in all the campaign material, be it house sites or construction of roads. But nowhere is he telling that they are being built with majority funds from the Centre. In all the ‘housing for poor’ programmes, he is talking as if they are built by him. In reality, the funds have been provided from the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).”
The BJP would contest all the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in the State, he said.
When asked if MP K. Haribabu would contest for the Lok Sabha again from Visakhapatnam, Mr. Ram Madhav said, “Mr. Haribabu is the sitting MP and he would be our first choice. But the decision is his.”
Suggestion boxes
Mr. Ram Madhav, who was here to meet members of various communities, said, “Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat Modi Ke Saath is a nationwide programme initiated to interact with various communities so that issues can be understood to frame a democratic election manifesto.”
“We have over 700 vans touring with 1,000 suggestion boxes to collect suggestions from a cross section of people. After filtering the suggestions, we would frame our national and local-level manifesto,” he said.
In the city, a team led by Mr. Ram Madhav and comprising MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, State party president Kanna Lakshminarayana, and MLC Somu Veeraju, met representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and various resident associations.
“The industry representatives have come up with a number suggestions. I will take up the issue of captive mines for RINL with the Ministry concerned on a war-footing,” Mr. Ram Madhav said.
J&K blasts condemned
Staff Reporter in Vijayawada writes:
Condemning the bomb blast in Jammu & Kashmir in which many CRPF jawans died, Mr. Ram Madhav said, “The terrorists are in frustration due to crackdown on them and a large number of them have been eliminated by the security forces.”
It was unfortunate that the jawans were killed, he told the media here.
Out of 12 commanders of the terrorist outfits, 10 were killed, and the remaining would not be spared, he asserted.