HYDERABAD: Giving some anxious moments to its ally, the TDP, the BJP’s Andhra Pradesh unit decided to press for holding of an all-party meet on the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project, which is aimed at diverting Godavari waters to Krishna River.
At a time when YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy is gearing up for visiting pending irrigation projects including the site of the proposed Pattiseema project, the saffron party, which had sent out overtures to the YSRC during the recently-held Assembly session, has begun sending feelers that it is not happy over the way the TDP is going ahead with the Pattiseema scheme without consulting the BJP.
The saffron party’s State executive meet held in Visakhapatnam on Sunday reportedly had a lengthy discussion on the issue of Pattiseema project.
Besides several of the party’s Rayalaseema leaders, who had visited the project site on Saturday and interacted with local farmers to know their objections to the proposed project, seniors like Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Daggubati Purandeswari, Kanna Lakshminarayana and P Kapileswariah took part in the discussion on the Pattiseema project.
According to sources, all these leaders expressed severe displeasure over the way the ruling TDP had decided to take up this project without consulting its ally, the BJP. Hence, they demanded that an all-party meet be organised to clear up growing doubts over the real motive behind the project.
Sources said during the meeting, BJP AP affairs in-charge and Union Health Minister JP Nadda, who was the chief guest in the conference, first said as there is an alliance between the TDP and the BJP, leaders of the saffron party should adopt a guarded approach on sensitive issues so that the yellow party does not get hurt.
Interestingly, within no time, the BJP’s point man reportedly made it clear that there is no need for the BJP’s AP leaders to kowtow to the TDP. “Even though the TDP is our ally, you can undertake agitations based on people’s issues,” he is understood to have directed the party leaders.
‘Blitzkrieg’ against TDP
The Sunday’s BJP state executive meeting adopted a resolution to launch a ‘blitzkrieg’ against its ally, the TDP in the coming days. “As the TDP has been alleging that the Union government is not coming to the rescue of the cash-starved AP, we have decided to undertake a massive campaign across the State to make people know about the facts,” BJP State vice president P Kapileswaraiah, who had taken part in the meeting, told Express over phone. According to him, the party’s State unit will soon kick-start publicity blitzkrieg to explain to people how the Narendra Modi government is giving preferential treatment to AP in releasing funds and announcing new projects. “We will distribute as many as five lakh pamphlets in each district, besides erecting banners and flexboards in every nook and cranny of the State explaining the helping hand being extended by the Centre to the reorganised State,” Kapileswaraiah disclosed.
Training Camps
As per the directive of the party president Amit Shah, the BJP AP leadership decided to organise training camps for the party cadres for four months starting from May. After the completion of these training classes, the party State leadership would organise a massive public meeting, tentatively in September, in the State which will be attended by Amit Shah.