Janjivan Bureau / Amaravati : After hard opposing in Telugu Desam Party (TDP) parliamentary party meeting on Sunday TDP on back foot and said it would not snap ties with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The assertion comes amid speculation that the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh might rethink its ties with the BJP in view of its disappointment over allocation of funds to the state in the Union Budget.
“The TDP will not break its alliance with the BJP-led NDA,” Party leader and Union minister Y S Chowdary said after a meeting of party MPs and senior leaders with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here this afternoon.
Chowdary said they would first raise issues concerning the state with the Centre and try to get them addressed.
“If the Centre does not concede to our demands, then we will undertake protest both inside and outside Parliament,” he added.
“It was all media speculation,” Chowdary said, when asked if the TDP was ready for a divorce with the NDA.
Asked if BJP chief Amit Shah had spoken with Naidu, he replied in the negative.
He said Naidu did not speak to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, the BJP’s bickering ally, as some media reports had claimed.
The BJP and the TDP are part of the ruling alliances in Andhra Pradesh and also at the Centre.
Today’s “emergency meeting” comes on the back of the TDP expressing its “extreme disappointment” over Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget which, it said, had ignored the needs of Andhra Pradesh.
NDA’s key ally and longtime friend Nara Chandrababu Naidu, who played a predominant role in national politics, is back. TDP supremo Naidu apparently called Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday according to Sena sources in Mumbai. Naidu and Uddhav apparently exchanged their views on the BJP. Naidu said to have told Thackeray about BJP ‘ignoring’ AP and its ‘stepmotherly’ treatment to the new state. Naidu told Thackeray that majority in TDP want to end ties with the BJP.
Since Naidu’s phone conversation with Shiv Sena president comes ahead of TDP’s Parliamentary Party meeting on Sunday, this gained much significance. Earlier on Friday in the Coordination Committee meet, Naidu expressed displeasure on the injustice meted out to AP in the Budget 2018.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena too severed its ties with BJP. While Shiv Sena is the part of NDA government formed in Maharashtra, Sena has already announced that it won’t ally with BJP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Sena has declared that it won’t team up with BJP and sounded death knell on its alliance with the BJP.
Looks like, Naidu is mustering strength from several other NDA allies to counter BJP strongly.
“Budget couldn’t favour us… zero we got … if they (centre) don’t do anything, we should get out of the alliance, that’s what Chandrababu Naidu yesterday said… if he decides, then we will resign and come out,” TDP parliamentarian Rayapati Sambasiva Rao said on Saturday.
Mr Rao was referring to Friday’s meeting called by Mr Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, where the party discussed the “injustice” meted out to the state in the Budget. The moment the budget speech ended, Mr Naidu was on the phone with his ministers and lawmakers and reportedly said it was time to “act now or never”.
But the TDP chief, at the meeting, also asked his lawmakers to exercise restraint and to “wait and go slow”, Mr Rao said.
“TDP is an old ally of BJP, we will talk it out and tell them we are committed to the interests of Andhra Pradesh,” Ram Madhav, BJP National General Secretary said.
Since Mr Naidu took charge as Chief Minister four years ago, his ties with the BJP have soured. The TDP believes the centre, after assuring help to fund mega promises like capital Amaravati and Polavaram, has been mostly tight-fisted.
Last weekend, he told reporters his party was “ready to chart its own course” if the BJP didn’t want to continue with the alliance. “Because of coalition dharma, we are keeping quiet. If they don’t want us, we will do the ‘namaskaram‘ and chart our own course,” he said.
The state unit of the BJP has been very critical of the Naidu government over the past few months and has even hinted at working with its rival YSR Congress, whose leader Jagan Mohan Reddy recently talked about supporting the BJP if Andhra Pradesh was given special status.
