Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday played video clips in the Legislative Assembly of Prime Minister Narendra Modi promising the state special category status before and after coming to power at the Centre in 2014. Naidu, along with Telugu Desam Party MLAs, wore a black badge to the Assembly to mark their protest, The Indian Express reported.
“I am giving an assurance to the people of Andhra Pradesh today that if you send me to Delhi, we will not only fulfil the promise of special category status given to the state, but will also extend it,” Modi says in a clip from his election campaign speech in Tirupati in 2014.
In another speech on October 22, 2015, at a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of Amaravati, Modi says, “I am assuring you that all the assurances given in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, will be fulfilled by the government.’’
After playing the videos, Naidu asked Modi to explain why he had not fulfilled the promises he had made to the people of Andhra Pradesh, The Indian Express reported. The chief minister also asked Modi whether he knew that the state had submitted all utilisation certificates for the central funds it had used so far, reiterating that Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were lying about this matter.
“I am demanding answers from you. I am asking for justice from you,” Naidu said. “The BJP is cheating the state for temporary political benefit, but this kind of strategy is harmful to the country.”
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister also claimed that the BJP was “resorting to tricks” to prevent a fair discussion in Parliament on the no-confidence motions the Telugu Desam Party and others had moved against the government in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier in March, Naidu’s party had pulled out two of its ministers from the Union Cabinet and quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance before moving the no-confidence motion.
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