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BJP rules out breaking up with TDP
The core committee meeting of the BJP held here on Friday had decided to go tough and reach out to the voters in the days to come. The five-hour marathon session held in the party office had resolved to counter the campaign against the Modi government and “distortion of facts’’ on the special category status.
Vijayawada: The core committee meeting of the BJP held here on Friday had decided to go tough and reach out to the voters in the days to come. The five-hour marathon session held in the party office had resolved to counter the campaign against the Modi government and “distortion of facts’’ on the special category status.
In a brief interaction with The Hans India, BJP national secretary and in-charge of AP affairs Siddharth Nath Singh reiterated that the party’s alliance with the TDP in the State “will continue”. He dismissed the rumours doing round that the alliance between the TDP and the BJP is set to break.
“There is no problem between the two parties and the alliance will continue. We are set to contest together in the 2019 elections,” he asserted. He further said in reply to a specific question on the internal strife between the two parties: “As long as I am in-charge here, the alliance will continue. There are no differences. If at all there are any, we can resolve them.”
On special category status to the State, Siddharth Nath Singh said that the Modi government was doing everything that was mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act. “We are ready to do everything that is part of the Act.
But, we can’t do anything which is not there in the Act,” he said. He further recalled that the government had brought an ordinance to merge seven mandals from Telangana with AP to facilitate Polavaram Project, which is part of the Act.
“Yes, there is no mention of delegation of the seven mandals to AP, but it was required to complete a provision (Polavaram Project) of the Act,” he said.
On special category status, he quipped saying, “Where is it mentioned (in the Act)? Had there been any mention of the special category status, we would have certainly fulfilled it,” he said.
When asked whether the BJP was not ready to honour its own promise of special category status, the BJP leader said: “We are trying to fulfill the promise by taking a round-about path as it is legally not possible to implement. The round-about path is extending maximum financial and other forms of support to the State and compensates what is expected from the special category status.”
However, the BJP national leader said that the party rank and file would now move vigorously across the State explaining the contribution of the NDA government to the State.
This campaign would be carried out in three phases with the Central Ministers and the party Central leaders visiting the State, two committees interacting with the State and the Central governments and the leaders holding village level meetings. The BJP would now release statements of funds released to the State on a regular intervals that would clear the doubts of the people on Modi’s dispensation.
“We have asked the Centre to give us information on the funds released to the State so that we can counter the campaign and tell the facts to the people,” said the party legislator from Rajahmundry, Akula Satyanarayana.
“The TDP leaders, Ministers say that the Central government is not cooperating. This is a malicious campaign, which we would be countering in the days to come with all the facts,” said the BJP floor leader Vishnukumar Raju.
By:D Gopi
