Vijayawada: BJP state leaders have complained to the party national leadership over the TD government ignoring them for the function that was put up to inaugurate work for the concrete spill way at the Polavaram dam last week.
They are irked that while the state government did not give them space at the function even after the Centre had paid Rs 1,900 crore for the project, TD leaders criticised them when the Union government gave Rs 100 crore for the project in the General Budget.
The TD government had deliberately chosen not to “properly invite” the BJP leaders for the work on the national project, they told party state affairs incharge Siddharth Nath Singh during the Kakinada state executive meeting. Even Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu had not attended the Polavaram event and even the Tirupati Science Congress meeting has raised discussions among the political circles, they said.
They said that at least the BJP MPs should have been invited for the programme when the cheque to provide money for the Polavaram project was given to the state government.
BJP leaders felt that it was an insult at a time when they are striving to support the state. They were facing criticism from the people for the Centre giving a Special Assistance Measure in place of the Special Category Status, they said.
They told Mr Singh that the government had invited them for the Polavaram function late in the night on December 29, 2016, after they had complained to him. The function was held on December 30.
BJP Legislative Party leader P. Vishnu Kumar Raju said he had received a text at 7.38 pm on December 29 by the additional personal secretary to the water resources minister inviting him for the function. “We never discriminated against the TD but the TD intentionally ignored us and intimated us at the last moment,” he said.
