BUDGET FALLOUT: BJP SURE OF TRUCE WITH TDP

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday said that the party and the Centre would soon be extending the olive branch to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) N.Chandrababu Naidu to resolve his concerns in a mutually beneficial to both parties.

Responding to Naidu’s expression of disappointment over the Union Budget proposals for 2018-19 not addressing the needs of Andhra Pradesh, Madhav said, “There seems to be some kind of unhappiness, we will talk it out. TDP is an old ally of the BJP. We will talk it out with them and will tell them we are committed to the interests of Andhra Pradesh.”

Madhav further said, “We at the BJP are committed not only to address the TDP’s concerns with regard to the Budget proposals, but also, all other issues of concern that it may have. We will convince Mr. Naidu and the TDP not to think of severing their ties with the BJP or the NDA. They are a valuable ally.”

Madhav’s response came days after a disappointed Naidu summoned an emergency meeting of his party to decide on the future course of action with regard to the TDP’s association with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

An upset TDP pitched its senior leader and union minister Y S Chowdhary to tell the media in no uncertain terms that it was unhappy over no monetary allocation for Andhra Pradesh on many issues such as Polavaram project, funding for the new state capital of Amravati, making Visakhapatnam a zonal railways headquarters and clearance for the Kadappa steel plant project.

Chowdhary had February 1 warned that the TDP had three options before it, namely, (1) either try and continue the alliance (2) make their MPs resign and (3) simply terminate association with the BJP and the NDA.

Last week, Naidu had issued an ultimatum to the BJP about chart its own course if the BJP did not wish to continue with the alliance.