Telugu Desam Party snaps ties with BJP, exits alliance with NDA

Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday snapped ties with the BJP and exited the alliance with NDA.

The decision was taken by Naidu in a teleconference and was unanimously passed by party politburo.

In fact, the politburo meeting was scheduled in the evening but Naidu advanced it. Later, Naidu held teleconference with MPs and informed them of the politburo decision. He also directed the MPs to move a no-confidence motion against the central government today.

Naidu told MPs the no-confidence motion should be on not granting special status to Andhra and not implementing the assurances given to the state in the AP Reorganization Act.

(Photo: ANI)

Naidu told MPs to coordinate with other like-minded opposition parties to get support to the no-confidence motion.

On TDP planning to move no-confidence motion, government sources said, "Confident that we have the numbers".

Naidu will also write a detailed letter to BJP party president Amit Shah detailing the reasons behind snapping ties.

He will write how the central government has “misled the people of Andhra Pradesh by not giving special status… then they promised a special package which too was not implemented”.

The party had earlier on Thursday extended its support to the YSR Congress Party’s no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in Parliament on Friday.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu had on Thursday said, “If necessary, we will support the no confidence motion against Centre, whoever may place it.”

TDP has 16 members of in the Lok Sabha.

A majority of the members including MPs, MLAs and senior leaders had already told Naidu to quit the alliance.

“This is the final option. The CM is livid that instead of resolving issues faced by the state, the BJP is indulging in dirty politics that it played in Tamil Nadu,’’ TDP leader Kambhampati Rammohan Rao said.

Earlier on Thursday, Naidu, who is at loggerheads with the Centre over the demand for special status for state, said that Prime Minister Modi is trying to repeat in Andhra Pradesh what he has done in Tamil Nadu where BJP supported OPS faction against EPS in the AIADMK.

In a teleconference with party MPs, Naidu alleged that the BJP was following 'divide and rule policy'.

He also accused the BJP of resorting to using Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against TDP.

Naidu further said that instead of addressing the issues raised by the state such as allocating special funds, bridging revenue gap or special category status as promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Modi was using the Tamil Nadu template to pit YSRCP and Jena Sena against TDP.

Referring to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar poll results announced on March 14 in which BJP lost, Naidu said that there is strong anti-Modi and anti-BJP feeling across country.

TDP withdrew its two ministers from the Union Cabinet on March 8 accusing the BJP of not fulfilling its promise to give special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The party is also evaluating if actor K Pavan Kalyan, who supported the BJP-TDP alliance and who broke his association with the TDP, has been instructed by the BJP to attack the party.

Telugu film star and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan had on Wednesday charged the Chandrababu Naidu government with converting the state into a 'corrupt Andhra Pradesh' and warned it of repercussions in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.