Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu called upon the fair price (FP) shop dealers to facilitate a 3% to 4% increase in the TDP’s vote share by telling the 1.47 crore beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (PDS) what it (the ruling party) has done in the last five years and the injustice meted out by the Central government.

Mr. Naidu said a strong protest would be registered against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Visakhapatnam on March 1 to mount pressure on him to discharge his obligations to the State.

‘False claims’

He also suggested that every FP shop should serve as a centre for achieving the State’s rights while insisting that the dealers’ endeavour should be to ensure that at least 95% of the people are satisfied with their services.

Addressing a large gathering of FP shop dealers here on Thursday, Mr. Naidu said the BJP had all along played petty politics and it continued to make false claims even as the TDP made all-out efforts to make it concede the State’s legitimate demands. He stated that A.P. was denied the Special Category Status (SCS), the Reorganisation Act was violated in a blatant manner and 18 assurances were simply brushed aside by Mr. Modi. He exhorted the people to defeat the BJP and parties which extended their cooperation, ridiculing that the YSR Congress Party’s ‘fan has its switch in Hyderabad and fuse in New Delhi,’ suggesting that Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy acted as per the game plan of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr. Modi, who were apparently practising politics of vengeance.

‘Modi playing politics ’

Referring to the conflict between India and Pakistan triggered by the ambush of CRPF personnel at Pulwama, Mr. Naidu said Mr. Modi was politicising it when national security ought to take precedence over everything else in this time of crisis.

He pointed out that statements like the one made by Karnataka BJP chief that the surgical strikes by Indian fighter aircraft on the terrorist camps in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir would help the BJP in winning not less than 22 Lok Sabha seats in his State exposed the party’s mindset.