The Telugu Desam Party is all set to leave the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), upset with the way the latter is pitting the Jana Sena Party and the YSRCP against it, while showing no political inclination to grant the Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh and concede other demands raised by the party.
Apparently, the party had no option but to exit the NDA after it took a significant decision to support a no-confidence motion being moved by the YSRCP against the Narendra Modi government over the SCS.
A.P. interests at stake
The motion may or may not be admitted in the Lok Sabha, but as the objective is to highlight the SCS and other demands in Parliament, the TDP feels it should be on the same page. It is keen on setting aside political differences as the motion concerns the interests of the State.
A formal decision on quitting the NDA is expected to be taken at the TDP polit bureau meeting scheduled for Friday under the leadership of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
This is the second big move made by the TDP after pulling out its two Ministers from the NDA government on March 8 over the same issue. The trigger for the TDP leaving the NDA is actor and Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan’s frontal attack on the Naidu government and his allegation of corruption against Mr. Naidu’s son and IT Minister Nara Lokesh at a public meeting held in Guntur on Wednesday.
A T.N.-like ploy seen
Senior TDP leaders suspect that the BJP is behind Mr. Kalyan’s sudden attack and it is trying to replicate what it has done in Tamil Nadu after the death of Jayalalithaa, by pitting one party against another to create confusion in Andhra Pradesh.
The decision to support arch-rival YSRCP’s no-confidence motion was taken at an emergency meeting of Ministers and senior leaders convened by Mr. Naidu in his chambers in the Assembly on Thursday evening. For some time now, the YSRCP had been daring the ruling party to support the motion to pressure the Centre to grant SCS and fulfil the promises made in the A.P. Reorganisation Act.
YSRCP MP, Y.V. Subba Reddy, submitted notice on the motion to the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Thursday much before their pre-announced date of March 21. This was because the YSRCP feared that the Parliament session would come to an abrupt end before that day.
At the emergency meeting, Mr. Naidu is believed to have expressed the view that there was a larger conspiracy against the TDP government and the party needs to take pre-emptive and timely decisions. The majority of those who attended the meeting felt it was better to exit the NDA.
