The BJP State executive meeting on Sunday, which coincided with the announcement of the election schedule, could not have come at a better time for the party to call the “bluff” of the TDP government, which had been accusing the Centre of betraying the people of Andhra Pradesh.
The party leaders left no stone unturned in proving the TDP wrong and minced no words in lashing out at Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for “pocketing” Central funds and still crying foul on “lack of support.”
In fact, the crucial meeting directed the party workers to go into the public to explain the Centre’s “generous support” to A.P., and also how the State government allegedly diverted funds to benefit its leaders.
The Special Category Status (SCS), an issue that supposedly kept the BJP on the back foot and, at the same time, proved to be a major weapon in the arsenal of other parties, surprisingly came to its rescue.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who attended the meeting as special guest, made it clear that there was no SCS for his State, though it once enjoyed the tag.
‘CM spreading canards’
“Mr. Naidu is spreading canards that SCS is denied only to A.P. He knows well that the SCS tag was withdrawn as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission formed by the previous UPA government, but he conveniently blames the NDA government,” he said. He expressed delight to visit the State when the “corrupt and nepotist” TDP rule was about to end, hinting at the initiation of the election process.
Reeling out statistics, he said the Centre had released ₹5.56 lakh crore in the last five years against the UPA’s ₹1.16 lakh crore.
It gave ₹900 crore exclusively for the drought-prone farmers. “Mr. Naidu does not have the habit of appreciating Narendra Modi but claims credit for everything.”
‘Scams galore’
Accusing the TDP government of indulging in scams worth thousands of crores in land acquisition for the Bhogapuram airport, the Machilipatnam port and the Amaravati capital area, Mr. Thakur wondered that the quantum of scams was higher than his small State’s annual budget of ₹42,000 crore.
State BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana breathed fire on the TDP for spreading lies and showing the BJP in poor light, in spite of immensely benefiting from the alliance. State in-charge V. Muraleedharan, MP K. Haribabu, Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, former Union Ministers U.V. Krishnam Raju and D. Purandeswari, MLC Somu Veerraju, leaders S.Suresh Reddy and PVN Madhav participated.