lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 04, 2019 19:07 IST

Amit Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, has said the doors of the National Democratic Alliance are “forever shut” for N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party.

“The NDA led by Narendra Modi is going to come back to power at the Centre. One won’t be surprised if the TDP makes an attempt to get back into the NDA fold once again. But, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, I want to make one thing clear. There is no question of allowing you back into the NDA. The doors are shut for you permanently,” Shah said on Thursday at an election rally in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was a key member of the NDA, national alliance that the BJP leads till he parted ways in March 2018 over the demand for special category status for the state.

Addressing the public rally at Narsaraopet in Guntur district, Shah targeted naidu saying there was no bigger opportunist than the Andhra Pradesh chief minister. Naidu would change colours as and when it suited him, the BJP president charged.

The BJP president said that the NDA government had extended massive financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh in the last five years and implemented majority of the promises made in AP Reorganisation Act.

“What has Naidu done during this period, except promoting his son as his heir apparent? Could he implement even a single project without Modi’s support,” Shah said.

He alleged that the construction of capital Amaravati and major irrigation project Polavaram could not be completed despite liberal assistance by the Centre. “Naidu indulged in huge corruption in these projects. They can be completed only if the TDP is thrown out of power in the state,” he said.

Shah also referred to political developments of 1983, when Naidu quit the Congress and joined the TDP founded by NT Rama Rao. “In 1995, he back-stabbed his own father-in-law and usurped the party. In 1999, he joined hands with the NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee and when the NDA lost power in 2004, the TDP chief deserted it,” said Shah.

Naidu came back to the NDA in 2014 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Shah claimed that Naidu’s TDP came to power in Andhra Pradesh on the back of the Modi wave for in 2014. “Last year, sensing that he was facing a strong anti-incumbency, Naidu once again enacted a new drama and came out of the NDA, to fool the people,” he alleged.

In the recent elections in Telangana, Naidu’s TDP allied with the Congress. Shah said when the TDP lost the assembly elections in Telangana polling less than three per cent votes, Naidu snapped ties with the Congress and refused to have an alliance with the grand-old-party in Andhra Pradesh elections.

Naidu has been at the forefront in the Opposition camp attempting to present a united front against the BJP-led ruling coalition in the national election. He was instrumental in two mega rallies of the Opposition leaders, first in Kolkata and then in New Delhi before the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha poll schedule.

In his comeback, Shah said, “The opposition alliance has no leader, no principles, no philosophy, no identity and no values.”

Andhra Pradesh will vote for all 25 Lok Sabha and 175 assembly seats in the first phase of the parliamentary elections on April 11.