Hyderabad:
In a tit-for-tat action two ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party have resigned from the Telugu Desam government in Andhra Pradesh.
Kamineni Srinivas and P Manikya Rao called on Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the state assembly in Amaravati and handed over their resignation to him.
The move came after Naidu announced his party’s decision to quit the NDA government at the Centre in protest against the Centre’s decision not to give Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu told the two BJP ministers that he was forced to take the decision to safeguard the interest of the state. “You performed very well during last four years. Thank you for your cooperation”, Naidu told the ministers.
Later speaking in the state assembly both the BJP ministers said that they were resigning due to unavoidable circumstances. Praising the Chief Minister Naidu, Manikyala Rao said that he never interfered in his work in the last four years. “Bifurcation of the state was painful but the development which took place now was a matter of happiness. At the same time he said that some people portraying M Venkaiah Naidu as a traitor as painful because he was the only person who fought for Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation. “It was because of Prime Minister Modi that villages coming under the waters of Polavaram project were transferred from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Kamineni Srinivas said that resigning from cabinet was not painful for him as he always looked at the ministry as a temporary position. He thanked the Chief Minister for his support.
TDP and BJP had fought the 2014 elections in alliance and after the elections two TDP ministers were inducted in Modi cabinet while two BJP ministers had joined the TDP government in the state.
The resignation papers of the two BJP ministers were with the Chief Ministers’ office. “They are under consideration”, sources said. The decision to forward them to the governor will be taken only after seeing the response of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the resignation of the two TDP Ministers P Ashok Gajapati Raju and YV Chowdhary.
Meanwhile, the two Telugu Desam Ministers P Ashok Gajapati Raju and YV Chowdary met the Prime Minister Narendar Modi at his official residence on Thursday at 6pm and handed over their resignations from the Union Cabinet.
After Wednesday night’s decision by the TDP to pull out from the NDA government, the two ministers waited throughout the day for an appointment with the Prime Minister. According to sources, as the Prime Minister was away on a visit to Rajasthan, he gave the appointment of 6pm after his return.
Before going to meet the Prime Minister the civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju made it clear that they were going only to submit their resignations. “We are not going to discuss why we are resigning”, he told the media.
Earlier the Prime Minister, soon after his return to New Delhi called Telugu Desam President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The two leaders spoke over phone for 20 minutes.
Modi returned the call as Naidu’s attempt to speak to him over phone last night had proved futile. While Modi tried to dissuade Naidu from leaving the NDA government, Naidu said that such a decision was inevitable as the Centre had failed to fulfil the commitments made to the state at the time of the bifurcation in 2014.
Sources said that Naidu made it clear that he was not in a position to compromise on the key issue of Special Category Status.
Having taken the first step of quitting the cabinet, Naidu was now consulting his party leader and whether the party should also quit the NDA itself. Sources said that party will wait for sometime and see the reaction of the Prime Minister and the BJP leadership to the resignations of the TDP ministers before taking the next step.
Naidu said that the way a national party like BJP has behaved on the promises made to Andhra Pradesh at the time of bifurcation was not correct. Referring to the party’s volte face on SCs, Naidu said, “if it continues like this people will lose faith in the national parties”.
Speaking in the state assembly, he said yesterday’s statement of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in press conference had pained him. “We are not asking anything extra. We are only demanding the implementation of the promises made to the state at the time of bifurcation”.
He wondered why the BJP kept quiet when the Congress government was doing injustice to Andhra Pradesh while bifurcating the state. He said that he entered into an alliance with the BJP on assurance that it will fulfil the assurance given in Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation.
