We will be able to choose PM

Amalapuram: Seeking to call YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s bluff that he had brought pressure on the Centre for Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan not to accept YSRC MPs resignations, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said that if he had that much grip on the BJP, he would have got Special Category Status for AP and persuaded the Centre to honour all commitments made for AP in the AP State Reorganisation Act.

Addressing a public meeting on the occasion of week-long Nava Nirmana Deeksha, the Chief Minister said “Would anyone believe what YSRC chief is saying? In fact, the YSRC does not want its MPS resignations accepted as in such an eventuality, they would have to face by-elections which they would surely lose."

Naidu said that this was the reason why the resignation game is being played out at Delhi with Sumitra Mahajan deferring her decision and YSRC MPs making a show that they were eager to get their resignations accepted. “The truth is neither the MPs nor the Speaker want the resignations accepted and if they prolong the issue till such time there is only one year left for elections, there would be no by-elections at all even if their resignations are accepted. This shows that they are afraid of facing the electorate”, he said.

The Chief Minister was emphatic that the BJP would not come to power in the 2019 elections. "The BJP would be nowhere to be seen. We will be in a position to choose our prime minister," he said, and called upon the people to give his party a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha so that the TDP would win all the 25 parliamentary seats so that the TDP could call shots at the Centre.

The Chief Minister, underscoring the need for the people to be vigilant about the designs of the Centre, said that he would not take kindly if the NDA government resorts to any misadventure. "I am sure they are plotting against the state. Their game-plan is to first create disturbances and then cry foul that law and order in AP has taken a hard knock.

The Centre had already tried to usurp Tirumala temple in the garb of declaring it as a protected monument," he said warned the BJP that any such attempts would prove to be very expensive for them. "If you mess around with the temple or do anything that is inimical to the interests of the people of AP, I will not keep quiet. I will fight it out till the end," Naidu said.

Chandra Babu said that the Centre does not want the state to prosper and that was the reason why it was creating hurdles. The Central government is plain afraid that Andhra Pradesh might beat Gujarat on all growth parameters one day. "The BJP which is scared is trying to undermine the interests of the state by withholding what is due statutorily to the state," he said.

Recalling how Andhras in Karnataka had taught a lesson to the BJP for betraying their trust, he said that the fate awaits the BJP In Andhra Pradesh too as people of the state would tolerate anything but not betrayal. Taking a pot shot at actor-politician Pawan Kalyan, he said that the film actor was targeting him more now after joining forces with YSRC.

The two parties are working in league at the instance of the BJP and the people should be smart enough to side-step their trap that they alone are the messiah of the state. He said that despite the Centre not helping the state in any way, he had kick-started economic activity in all sectors by attracting investments as the state needed badly needed infusion of capital after bifurcation.

It was because of the hard work that he and his team had put in, that the state was on the road to development now. Naidu wondered why the Centre talks of the state to come forward and invest in petro chemical project in Kakinada. “The Centre has to take full responsibility. From KG basin, you are taking oil and gas and yet you do not bother to help the state financially," he said.

Earlier on his arrival the CM visited Rangapuram village in Amalapuram rural and offered prayers at the newly constructed Veerabahdra Swamy temple. He also declared open the panchayat building at nearby Samarasa village. Late,r he unveiled the statues of NTR and Dr Metla Satyanarayana Rao at Nallavantena in the town.