Claiming that people realised the support extended by Central government to Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) and the alleged corrupt governance of TDP, BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana said it was sheer opportunism that made Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu revert to the demand for Special Category Status (SCS) after initially agreeing for the Special Assistance Measure (SAM).
Mr. Naidu did a volte-face on various other issues and when the fear of defeat came to his mind, he announced a flurry of populist schemes starting January, Mr. Lakshminarayana observed, asserting that the alliance would have been far more damaging for BJP had the TDP not parted ways a year ago.
In an exclusive interview to The Hindu here on Monday, Mr. Lakshminarayana said the party (BJP) would have been on a stronger wicket had the leaders been alert to the conspiracy to show it as the villain, which Mr. Naidu had hatched in 2015 itself due to his compulsions.
However, the BJP could expose the TDP Government’s ineptitude through ‘Intitiki BJP’ campaign and other means, which dispelled the notion that the BJP-led NDA Government has done nothing for A.P.
He stated that the TDP’s exit from NDA was prompted by the tirade launched by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against Mr. Naidu’s failure in securing SCS and getting the A.P. Reorganisation Act (APRA) implemented in its entirety.
Mr. Lakshminarayana reiterated that the BJP had done a lot for A.P. though it had 10 years time to fulfil its commitments, and SAM was delayed because of the State’s reluctance to form a special purpose vehicle.
He asked what prevented Rahul Gandhi from incorporating the SCS in APRA when Congress-led UPA-II was in power then and recalled that Veerappa Moily who was in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet insisted that SCS should be given to Karnataka also if it was conferred to A.P.
Mr. Lakshminarayana dismissed allegations by the TDP that there was a ‘match-fixing’ between the BJP, YSRCP and the TRS and that Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was out on bail because of his hobnobbing with the BJP. He added that Pawan Kalyan was furthering the TDP’s agenda and once the elections were over the whole picture would become clear.