The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, once sympathetic to the BJP – though formally not a part of the NDA – has also declared lack of confidence in the party’s government and has called for a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance.
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“This is just the first step”.
“We salute Chandrababu Naidu for showing the courage to stick to the stand he took on the issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh”. “I tried reaching out to the PM to inform him about the decision”.
They pointed that it needs to sweep a state like Bihar if it has to come near to a repeat of its performance in the last polls. “But sadly, he was unavailable”, Naidu had tweeted. “We hope we will succeed in getting special status.”, he said. It was rumoured that TDP had severed its ties with NDA as special status was not granted to Andhra Pradesh, post bifurcation.
Jaitley said after the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, the concept of special category status was abolished.
Special category states, such as those of the North East and hilly states such as Himachal Pradesh, get privileges not available to other states, such as increased budgetary allocations. The remaining funds are provided by the state governments.
Arun Jaitley had said that the centre was happy to give funds to Andhra Pradesh, but can not give it special status as that scheme was scrapped by the 14th Finance Commission for all states except the north east and hill states. He, however, said it would be unfair to say that the Centre did nothing for the state. “I am with the state of Andhra Pradesh and for the people of Andhra Pradesh”, Modi is learnt to have said. Taking a strong exception to TDP saying that the Centre had not allocated even a single rupee for AIIMS on its official Facebook page, BJP MLC Madhav sought to know how the construction of buildings is possible without the Centre allocating funds. “We have resigned in a cordial atmosphere”, Chowdhry said. Jaitley spoke like we asked for all the money. (Naidu himself said several times that it was because of his advice that NTR had founded the TDP).
“The BJP has the potential to emerge as a third viable alternative in Andhra Pradesh and our track record in different states testify to this”.
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Naidu has taken the decision keeping the next elections in mind as YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy is actively campaigning in the state and is posing a direct challenge. He will look for every opportunity to gain the most out of it and will try to create a situation which is very much in his favour. “Andhra Pradesh may not be backward but it was a promise”, said Hyderabad based political analyst, K. Nageshwar.
