BJP TDP ties on the rocks in AP

BJP TDP ties on the rocks in AP
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Highlights

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Andhra Pradesh, who met here on Monday, looked uncomfortable with the party alliance with the TDP and favoured the leadership to break it. However, the party think-tank was waiting for the TDP to take the lead and make an announcement on the issue.

Vijayawada: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Andhra Pradesh, who met here on Monday, looked uncomfortable with the party alliance with the TDP and favoured the leadership to break it. However, the party think-tank was waiting for the TDP to take the lead and make an announcement on the issue.

The BJP leaders, who met here a day after their Telangana unit announced the breakup of alliance with the TDP, favoured a similar decision to come from the top party sources. A good number of the leaders, who have come from the 13 districts, expressed similar feeling during their interaction with the party State chief and Visakhapatnam MP Kambhampati Haribabu, in the closed door meeting.

It is learned that majority of them have asked the party to announce the break up so that they could go aggressive in strengthening the party base at the village level. They have expressed their displeasure over the TDP causing troubles for them in the villages as the party holds meetings and membership drive. During the break after the morning session, the party leaders with whom the The Hans India interacted expressed their displeasure over the continuation of alliance with the TDP.

They saw it as major hurdle for the party to spread its base. “Alliance is comfortable in sharing power, but not to spread the party base. The major partner in the alliance would not help the minor partner to expand its party reach,” was what the party senior leader and the former Union minister Daggubati Purandheswari and former minister Kanna Lakshminarayan analyzed. Interestingly, a few minutes later, the party State chief Haribabu too had echoed similar feelings. “How can we expect any party to help other party to strengthen its base?” he asked when his attention was drawn to the views of the leaders about the alliance.

“We are open for alliance with any non-Congress party,” he said and added that the “BJP was comfortable with the TDP and the continuation of alliance is an indication to the BJP’s stand. “If we are not comfortable and see a threat to our existence, we will differ, but as of now, we don’t see any threat from the TDP,” asserted Haribabu.

The BJP leaders also have complaints about the TDP government in the state not giving due credit to the Central government for the funds that have been released in the last 20 months. “There has been a great flow of funds to the state from the Centre. The schemes like fiber grid, housing, pensions, water harvesting programme (Panta Sanjeevani) are the Central contribution.

But there is no word about the Prime Minister or the Central government by the state,” complained Purandheswari. However, she regretted that the TDP leaders from the state have indulged in personal attack on her for her comments. “It is unfortunate that they are making personal comments instead of answering the questions raised by me or any BJP leader,” she said.

However, the leadership too is aware of this complaint. “We can’t expect another party to work for our party. Though the alliance is to benefit the partners, we can’t find fault with TDP leaders for not giving credit to BJP. It is our responsibility to tell the people and can’t expect TDP leaders to do it.

It is for this reason, we have asked the rank and file to go to the villages, explain to the people the volume of funds given to the state in the last 20 months, the number of institutions sanctioned and the number of new schemes given to the state,” Haribabu said going soft on the TDP. It is learnt that Haribabu also shared the feelings of the majority leaders on the alliance.

However, he had asked them to wait for the TDP to break it. When asked how they would take the TDP government in passing a resolution in the Assembly seeking fulfillment of the provisions and promises of the Reorganisation Act, Purandheswari found fault with the TDP’s role and said that the resolution would show BJP a betrayer. However, Haribabu took light of the resolution. “The Central government had given highest amount to the state in the past 20 months, which is a history. Still, as an MP, I would also ask for more funds. There is nothing wrong in asking for funds and projects,” he said.

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