VIJAYAWADA: A day after Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao called him the “dirtiest politician” and made a mockery of his governance, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday gave a point-by-point rebuttal to KCR’s charges.
Not losing his cool and not uttering any harsh words against his Telangana counterpart, Naidu took exception to the language used by KCR not just against him but the Congress and also Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his more than one hour rebuttal, Naidu also said if KCR threatened to file cases against him (read cash-for-vote), he would be more than willing to pay him back in the same coin. “If he files one case against me, I can file four cases against him,” he said. Releasing a ‘political’ white paper, he reminded KCR of his political origins. “Were you not from TDP? Didn’t you serve as a minister in my cabinet?” he asked.Taking exception to be described as an opportunist, the TDP supremo hurled back the charge at KCR and recalled how he (KCR) sought Congress support for achieving his goal of Telangana and even offered to merge the TRS with the Congress, if his statehood dream was realised. “Telangana was formed. What happened? Congress has now become an idiot in his eyes,” Naidu pointed out.
He recalled KCR approaching him for seat-sharing in 2009 and how he rejected the proposal from a person who ‘relied on blackmail’ politics, but finally agreed paving way for the TRS winning 10 seats.Accusing KCR of playing to the tunes of Modi, he said the Opposition YSR Congress was also party to the acerbic attack on him. “Though KCR scolds Modi as an inept politician for public consumption, they are together behind the scenes.”
Naidu welcomed KCR to contest directly or in alliance with YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh. “He is welcome to come here, ally with YSRC and Narendra Modi to contest elections. What is the need for hidden agendas? People will decide the outcome,” he said.
On joining hands with the Congress after leaving the NDA government at the Centre, Naidu reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi betrayed people of the State by failing to keep any of the promises and denying Special Category Status to AP. Hence, TDP came out of NDA. Defending his decision to join hands with the Congress, he said it promised to fulfil every bifurcation promise and the State needed the support of a national party in the fight for its rights.
Naidu welcomed KCR’s offer to write a letter to the Prime Minister seeking Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh. “They (TRS) supported the SCS to the State, but when we moved a no-confidence motion, they backed out,” he pointed out.
With regard to his comments on the High Court division issue, he defended them and asked what was wrong in pointing out that just four days time was insufficient for shifting such an important institution.
Brushing aside KCR’s allegation that the TDP was snatched away from NTR, he said: “Where were you then? Not by my side?” He also dismissed the claims of the Telangana CM with regard to Central fund flow to AP as irrelevant and took objection to his comment that `1,500 crore was sufficient for capital Amaravati construction. “We have to build our State capital with `1,500 crore, but he could spend `300 crore for his house,” he ridiculed.
Secretariat stands as an icon of self-respect and its construction should not be belittled, he said pointing to KCR’s mockery of ‘raft technology’. The Andhra Pradesh CM pooh-poohed his Telangana counterpart’s claims that his ‘Agriculture Policy’ is a role model for the country.
“What kind of model policy is it? In the last five years, their (Telangana) growth rate in agriculture and allied sectors is just 0.2 percent, while ours (AP) is 11 percent. He claims to have spent `1 lakh crore on irrigation. Where is it? Our development is visible,” he said and reiterated that though the State started on negative note, it will develop fast, step by step and emerge topper in every sector.
“One can go to villages in Telangana and one can visit villages here to see the difference,” he said and added that despite handicapped by lack of cooperation from the Centre, Andhra Pradesh is improving on per capita income front while Telangana though a revenue surplus State, is not progressing as expected.
Naidu said Narendra Modi was using KCR to attack him and to conspire against him and Jagan was a party to that. He advised YSRC chief Jagan Mohan Reddy to join NDA instead of dancing to the tunes of Modi. He said Narendra Modi was using cases to blackmail leaders. “Modi saved KCR for the latter’s links with Elugubanti Suryanarayana who was accused of misusing huge public funds. A CBI director alleged that Modi wanted cases to be booked against Lalu Prasad Yadav,” Naidu said.
The Chief Minister also made light of KCR’s Federal Front efforts and wanted to know what happened after his meeting with Odisha and West Bengal Chief Ministers. Naidu went on to add that KCR was frustrated after the outcome of the talks with the two CMs. “There are only two fronts at the national level today. Modi and anti-Modi,” he said.