VIJAYAWADA: A day after BJP national general secretary and party’s State co-incharge Sunil Deodhar ruled out the possibility of alliance with the YSRC, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botcha Satyanarayana sought to know who asked the saffron party for an alliance in the first place. The minister once again maintained that his remarks were misinterpreted and clarified that he did not even utter the word ‘NDA’, let alone alliance.

Speaking to newsmen at Tadepalli on Sunday, the minister scoffed at Sunil Deodhar’s statement categorically dismissing chances of working with both the YSRC and the TDP. “Who even asked for an alliance? Did we ask? Before making a statement, the co-incharge of the BJP should have crosschecked if we really said that we were ready to hitch wagon to the saffron party,” he said.

He further took a dig at Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan, who threatened to pull out of the NDA, which he recently joined, if the BJP and the YSRC decide to form an alliance in the State. “It is his prerogative to be with a party or not, but who asked him to first support them in the past, then come out of the alliance before elections, and again go and fall on their feet in New Delhi recently? Now, he again says he would move out of coalition if we work with the BJP. What is all this for?” he wondered.

The minster noted that the basis for all this discussion was news reports, which misquoted the remarks he made in Vizag. He showed the video of his remarks and lambasted a section of media for tweaking his statements. “It is just to mislead people and to safeguard the interests of Chandrababu Naidu. I have never even uttered the word ‘NDA’. I said we were ready to work with anybody in the interest of the State,” he stressed.