TDP fumes at ‘raw deal’ in budget but won’t quit NDA

› We shall try first to talk to the Centre to see that they (issues) are resolved. If there is still no response, our party president will take an appropriate decision...

YS CHOWDARY, senior TDP leader and Union minister

NEW DELHI: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will not pull out of the NDA for now but would raise in and outside Parliament the treatment meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the budget, senior party leader and Union minister YS Chowdary said on Sunday.

The decision was taken during a meeting the TDP’S parliamentary party held at the residence of party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravati.

Chowdary said several issues pertaining to the state were pending with the Centre. “We shall try first to talk to the central government to see that they are resolved. If there is still no response from the Centre, our party president will take an appropriate decision (on continuing in the NDA). Till then, we shall wait and watch,” Chowdary said. The BJP’S biggest southern ally is upset over “being ignored” in the Union budget presented on February 1. The meeting was called to decide if the TDP, the NDA’S third largest constituent with 16 members in the LS, should continue in the ruling coalition. “The people of the state are seething with anger with the injustice done to the state in the Union budget,” said one of the MPS.