VIJAYAWADA: The Telugu Desam Party led by N Chandrababu Naidu will play a pivotal role in national politics and back a government at the Centre that will fulfil all 18 promises made to the state as per the AP Reorganisation Act. The party will also send a clear message that it is ready for simultaneous polls to Parliament and State Assemblies.
A resolution to this effect will be passed at the party’s three-day Mahanadu to be held here from Sunday. Sources said the Mahanadu would also discuss the party’s role in the 2019 elections in the wake of its decision to snap ties with the BJP. The draft resolution ‘National Politics-Role of TDP’ will elaborate on how the party had played an important role in the National Front and other coalition governments at the Centre and also the need for it to align with the BJP in the 2014 elections.
When the resolution comes up for discussion, the party leaders will explain to its cadre as to why it had to snap ties with the BJP. “The party waited in vain for four years for the BJP-led government at the Centre to fulfil the assurances to Andhra Pradesh. This forced us to come out of the National Democratic Alliance government and move a no-confidence motion against it. The TDP garnered the support of a total of 48 parties for the motion,’’ the draft resolution said.
“People of the country will give an important verdict in 2019 elections. Both the Congress and the BJP lost their national parties’ ideology and people are not in a mood to accept them. All non-Congress and non-BJP parties are uniting and the BJP will taste the same results as it did in the recently held Lok Sabha bypolls and Karnataka Assembly elections,’’ the draft resolution said.
The party leadership will also talk about the meetings of Finance Ministers of 7 States against the Centre’s move to devolve funds to States as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission using 2011 census as basis. The Mahanadu will also discuss how the Centre is ‘misusing’ the institution of Governor.
On the proposal to hold simultaneous elections to the State Assemblies and Parliament, the TDP would send a message to its cadre that they are ready for such a proposal. “All elections, from Parliament to panchayat, should be completed within a gap of six months. On the language policy, the party is of the opinion that it is undesirable on part of the Centre to make Hindi mandatory.
TDP not cosying up to Cong: FM
Reacting to BJP national president Amit Shah’s statement that ‘TDP is the only party to exit from the NDA’, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the TDP had snapped its ties with the BJP not for ‘political benefits’ but for serving the interests of Andhra Pradesh. “We aligned with the NDA government in the hope that it will work for the interests of the State but it let down AP,’’ Ramakrishnudu said. Amid Opposition BJP and YSRC criticism that the TDP is cosying up to the Congress, Ramakrishnudu asserted that the TDP would never join hands with the party.