Unhappy with budget, Andhra leaders protest in Parliament
The “raw deal” meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget 2018-19 has heated up the state’s political atmosphere with ruling alliance partners — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) indulging in a war of words and the opposition parties calling for a state bandh on February 8.
TDP MPs, with the exception of central ministers P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y S Chowdary, staged a protest in the Parliament house on Monday, on instructions from party president and AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
They demanded that the Centre fulfil the promises made while the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, was being enacted by making adequate allocations for new state capital Amaravati, metro rail projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, a new railway zone for Visakhapatnam, and the Polavaram irrigation project.
They issued a notice to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan for a discussion on the matter.
In the Rajya Sabha, party MPs stalled proceedings and raised
HYDERABAD:
slogans in the House. “We shall stall the proceedings in Lok Sabha as well,” TDP MP from Chittoor N Sivaprasad said.
On Monday evening, TDP MPs, led by Raju and Chowdary, met Union home minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue.
In Andhra however, TDP MLAs and workers launched a tirade against the BJP. In the morning, they tried to storm BJP MLC Somu Veerraju’s house.
The MLC, on Sunday, had accused the TDP of indulging in corruption using Central funds. “There is a rampant corruption in his (Naidu’s) own Kuppam constituency in Chittoor district. The TDP government has been getting thousands of crores for various schemes, but Naidu claims them as his own...” he said.
Reacting strongly, TDP leaders distanced themselves saying “Leaders like Veerraju have a secret agenda of supporting the YSR Congress party. He is speaking exactly in the tone of YSRC president YS Jaganmohan Reddy...” TDP legislator Buddha Venkanna said.
Meanwhile, the Opposition parties, including the YSR Congress and the Left parties, called for a shutdown in the state on February 8. “The Centre should grant special category status to AP, besides fulfilling the other issues...” the YSRC said.