VIJAYAWADA: A delegation of BJP leaders and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on Wednesday and explained to her the economic and political situation in the State. Emerging from the hour-long meeting, Pawan claimed there was no Central government consent for the Jagan government’s three-capital move. “YSRC claims it is shifting the capital in consultation with the Centre. That is not the case. This is a State government decision. They did not speak to the Centre. They claim otherwise only to drag the Centre into it,” Pawan told the media.
Stating that the Centre is extending support to the State just as it did earlier during the TDP regime, Pawan alleged, “The present government in the State is also behaving the same away as the previous TDP government by not submitting utilisation certificates for funds granted by the Centre. This also came up for discussion.”
The actor also informed that Amaravati came up for discussion and reiterated that it would remain the capital of the State.
Pawan questioned why the Republic Day function was moved from Vizag to Vijayawada and sought to know if shifting the capital is feasible when the government cannot manage a function in Vizag.
BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana too alleged that the Jagan government was no different from the Naidu government.
Among those who met the Finance Minister are BJP leaders Purandeswari, GVL Narasimha Rao, Sunil Deodhar, and Jana Sena’s Nadendla Manohar. Later in the evening, they met at the residence of GVL Narasimha Rao and chalked out an action plan.
Kanna Lakshminarayana told the media that it was their first coordination meeting and henceforth, they would meet every fortnight. The first coordination committee meeting would held on Jan 28.
GVL Narasimha Rao said they would meet JP Nadda on Thursday to congratulate him on being elected as the new BJP president. To a query on whether Jana Sena would be merged with the BJP, Pawan appeared annoyed and asked whether such questions were being asked intentionally. “There is no question of a merger. We are very clear on our alliance,” he asserted.