The Hindu : National : BJP flays TDP for U-turn on Telangana

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BJP flays TDP for U-turn on Telangana

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was on Friday critical of its former friend and supporter, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), for its sudden change of heart on the issue of a separate State of Telangana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

The announcement of an electoral tie-up between the TDP and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has come as a blow to the BJP, which was trying hard to get the TRS as an electoral ally and a partner in the National Democratic Alliance.

To help the TRS make up its mind, two senior BJP leaders, president Rajnath Singh and prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, had announced the party’s commitment to creating a separate Telangana state.

Mr. Singh had also pointed out that the BJP was the “only national party” that had made such a commitment.

This point was emphasised by party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar here on Friday.

He criticised the TDP for opposing the idea of a separate Telangana all these decades and now changing its position in a complete U-turn.

What Mr. Javadekar was indicating was that the TRS should know that to create a new State, the Centre would have to adopt a Constitution amendment and without the support of a ruling party at the Centre, this would not be possible.

Party leaders separately said the TDP-TRS alliance has virtually shut all options of an electoral tie-up in Andhra Pradesh for the BJP.

The party has already made some overtures to the new party Praja Rajyam led by film-star-turned-politician Chiranjeevi, but it is not very hopeful of a positive outcome.

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