Vijayawada: The Telugu Desam politburo meeting, chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu here on Tuesday, decided to hold the party’s Mahanadu in Tirupati for three days from May 27. It also passed a resolution to mount pressure on the Centre for getting special status and implementation of other promises in the AP Reorganisation Act.
The leaders of Andhra Pradesh TD unit raised objections over the irrigation projects of Telangana state and the politburo strongly supported the AP cause. The leaders said AP would lose majorly from the proposed projects of Telangana.
Thereon, the TD politburo decided to request the Centre to stop these irrigation projects until they got clearance from the central water re-sources ministry. Leaders of Telangana TD requested the politburo not to raise the issue repeatedly.
Significantly, the responsibility to make arrangements for the Mahanadu was given to Telangana TD leaders as was pleaded by them, saying they have the experience in doing this for several years.
The politburo has discussed on the Centre’s alleged lack of support for development of AP. Some of the leaders suspected that the Centre was neglecting the state intentionally.
Mr Naidu explained his efforts at getting special status as also funds for various projects as per the AP Reorganisation Act. At this juncture, the TD leaders asked the politburo to mount pressure on the Centre, following which, it passed a resolution.
Meanwhile, TD national president Mr Naidu has not responded favourably to the request by his party’s Telangana state unit leaders to allot one Rajya Sabha seat this time from the AP quota. Mr Naidu is believed to have told them that he cannot accommodate a TS leader for an RS seat from AP due to political pressures to fill all the seats from the state.
The names of A. Narsa Reddy and Shoba Rani were proposed for TTD Board member post, but the CM postponed the matter to a later date. He suggested that the TD leaders from Telangana make arrangements for the Mahanadu in a big way and strengthen the base for the party in TS. He spoke of the “failures” of the Telangana government vis-a-vis drought relief. He said he expected more from TD MLAs and ministers in publicising the good schemes of the AP government.
The politburo condemned the campaign of Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy over alleged corruption in the construction of the Amaravati capital.
AP Telugu Desam president Kala Venkata Rao said the state government did not spend a single penny for the land pooling that organised 33,000 acres of land, and wondered how the Opposition was coming up with “false” allegations.
Finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Deputy CM Nimmakayala China Rajappa, Telangana TD president L. Ramana, Telangana TD working president A. Revanth Re-ddy, Motkupalli Narasimhulu, Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu, Kalva Srinivasulu, Pratibha Bharathi, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy and several other leaders were present.
