Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday hit out at BJP national president Amit Shah for blaming the Telugu Desam for leaving the NDA.
Responding to the nine-page letter written by Mr Shah, Mr Naidu said in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly that the letter lacks dignity and is in bad taste. He said that Mr Shah had twisted facts on many issues and presented all lies in the letter.
In his first attack on Mr Naidu for his decision to break ties with his party, Mr Shah said the Chief Minister’s move was guided by political consideration and not development concerns, and dubbed his criticism of the Centre as “untrue and baseless”.
Mr Naidu found fault with Mr Shah’s response that the TD walked out of the NDA in a whiff and unilaterally saying the decision was solely for state’s interests and not guided by any “political considerations”.
“As we didn’t have any other choice, as a last resort, as a mark of protest we walked out of the NDA. We wrote to various Union ministries several times, seeking funds, and I personally visited Delhi 29 times but there was no response. We waited patiently for four years for justice to the state. We remained a loyal friend (of the NDA) but snapped ties only when it did not honour any of the promises,” Mr Naidu said.
“What Shah wrote is a pack of lies and half-truths. It is not only insulting but also provoking the people of AP. It lacked dignity,” he said. He also said that the BJP was also part of the past sin of bifurcating the state irrationally along with the Congress. He said that in fact, the BJP had done more injustice to Andhra Pradesh than the Congress.
