Apparently irked over the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) overplay of its discontent on the Special Category Status (SCS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday went to the extent of issuing a serious warning to its alliance partner, advising it not to get carried away by the vociferous campaign of the Opposition parties to defame the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.
The party sought to throw the blame of the present crisis on the TDP and ‘the other equally disillusioned’ parties for having remained silent during bifurcation and crying foul now. At a media conference here on Saturday, the BJP State general secretary S. Suresh Reddy minced no words while mocking at the TDP’s infamous ‘two-eyed policy’ adopted during bifurcation, with an eye on retaining stakes in both the successor states, thus failing to demand the deserving pound of flesh from the Centre. He started it off loud, but later mellowed down citing ‘mitradharma’.
Referring to the statements of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister Y.S. Chowdary that SCS was no panacea and that the support would be confined to a couple of thousand crores, he wondered why the party was insisting on the meagre amount while the Centre was ready to extend a larger figure in the form of a bouquet of development projects.
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He questioned the wisdom of the TDP in insisting on SCS, which would only earn it the displeasure of the other States that had put forth a similar demand.
Mr. Reddy was critical of the TDP regime for constantly blaming the Centre of ignoring the State’s interests, without submitting the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the capital and the other essential documents for release of funds from the Centre. He instead advised the TDP to set its house in order, referring to complaints of large-scale irregularities in ‘Neeru Chettu’, rampant red sanders smuggling and sand mafia in the State.
On a senior TDP leader’s remark that the BJP’s contribution to the combined vote share was minuscule, Mr. Reddy said it smacked of burning the bridges after coming to power with the help of ‘Modi wave’.
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BJP State OBC Morcha president Jalli Madhusudhan was also present.
Why the TDP is insisting on meagre amount, while the Centre is ready to extend liberal aid for development projects.
S. Suresh Reddy
BJP State general secretary