March 16, 2018
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today pulled out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coalition government over special status and financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP is set to bring a no-confidence separately against the Centre.
March 16, 2018
Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today pulled out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coalition government over special status and financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh. The TDP is set to bring a no-confidence separately against the Centre.
- Mr Naidu has been furious with the centre for not granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh as promised after Telangana was carved out of it in 2014. Special status will mean a large infusion of central funds to help with the state government's plans to develop its new capital Amravati.
- The centre had turned down Mr Naidu's demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh saying the nomenclature had been done away with, except for hill states and states in the Northeast. But Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had promised the state funds equivalent to what a special category state gets.
- Mr Naidu alleged Mr Jaitley suggested TDP was "asking for money at the expense of the country's Defence Budget… Jaitley spoke like we asked for all the money. We felt insulted."
- The TDP faces extreme pressure in Andhra Pradesh ahead of assembly elections and the national election next year, with opposition parties like the YSR Congress accusing Mr Naidu of failing the state by not ensuring special status for it as a partner at the centre.
- The aggressive attack on TDP and the YSR Congress by Telugu actor-turned-Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan at an event in Guntur on Wednesday, seems to have further widened the gap between TDP and NDA. "I am not afraid of the centre unlike Chandrababu Naidu or Jagan Mohan Reddy," Mr Kalyan said.
Courtesy/Source: NDTV / PTI
