Hyderabad: Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley gave new assurances on Tuesday that pending issues concerning Andhra Pradesh will be addressed, AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu directed Telugu Desam MPs to continue their stir in Parliament till ‘concrete steps’ are announced on the floor of the House.
After noting the protests of the MPs for the second day at the Mahatma Gandhi statue, Mr Modi called TD Parliamentary Party Lea-der and minister in the Un-ion Cabinet, Sujana Chow-dary, to his chambers on Tuesday morning, and told him he would look into all issues being raised by the TD MPs and asked that the stir be withdrawn both insi-de and outside Parliament House. Mr Chowdary told the Prime Minister that the matter was not up to him and he should speak to Mr Chandrababu Naidu.
There is an unconfirmed report that Mr Modi did speak to Mr Naidu in Amaravati; at least the Chief Minister’s Office is not denying the report.
After the meeting with Mr Chowdary, the Prime Mini-ster came to the Lok Sabha where the TD MPs rushed to the podium and started raising slogans, holding placards seeking justice for their state. With the Prime Minister watching, TD MPs created pandemonium in the House forcing Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to adjou-rn the House till afternoon.
Mr Modi also spoke to finance minister Arun Jait-ley and directed him to settle the pending issues of AP. Mr Jaitley then spoke to Mr Chowdary in the corridor. It was made clear that Mr Naidu was really serious and any announcement the Central government wants to make it must make in the House.
The protesting TD MPs in the Lok Sabha met with little sympathy from Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Tuesday.
Eluru MP Maganti Babu holding a placard had bl-ocked her view of members from the treasury benches. She told the shouting MPs it was not proper to block her view by holding up placards. Their protests also annoyed Congress party leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikharjun Kharge.
