Chief Minister N. Chandrababu has said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had never bartered the interests of the State to join the government at the Centre. “I had waited patiently for nearly four years to honour the alliance-dharma but they deceived us,” he said.
At the Dharma Porata Deeksha here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the Centre had promised special assistance in place of Special Category Status (SCS) and later went back on its promise. The promised funds for Amaravati and Polavaram, railway zone with headquarters in Visakhapatnam, Dugarajupatnam Port, Steel Plant in Kadapa and Metro rail in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada were not sanctioned.
The YSR Congress Party was indulging in dramas by calling for a no-confidence motion.
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“Our (TDP) MPs resigned from the Cabinet, raised the issue twice in Parliament and brought the injustice done by the Modi government to AP, to the attention of the nation. We came out of the NDA alliance and other parties supported us in Parliament expressing their solidarity towards AP.”
Describing SCS as ‘Andhrala Hakku’, he called upon the Centre to listen to the pleas of Andhra Pradesh at least now lest the people teach the BJP a lesson in the 2019 elections as they had done to the Congress for the ‘unscientific’ bifurcation of the State.
Saying that completion of the “Polavaram project’ as his life’s ambition”, he called upon the Centre to release the funds promised without any delay.
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United struggle
Calling upon the people not to shy away from fighting for the rights of the State, he said: “We should fight to safeguard Telugu pride”. In an obvious reference to the Congress and BJP, he said two main parties had done injustice to AP and called for a united struggle till justice was done to the State.
He appealed to the people not to fall into the trap of caste and religion as some parties could woo them on such lines and they would be detrimental to the progress of the State.
Mr. Naidu said success of the TDP in the 2019 elections was crucial to ensure progress of the State in the present situation.