Chandrababu Naidu Indicates TDP Will Go it Alone in AP Polls - 2O19

A day after Congress announced that it would fight the elections in Andhra Pradesh on its own, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday indicated that his party, the TDP, too would not have any electoral tie-up with the national party in the state.

The Congress’s decision to fly solo came a day after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Tuesday. Naidu had said a decision on alliance with Congress will be taken in line with the sentiments of party cadre from both sides.

We have come on a common platform with the slogans save the nation, save democracy, united India. Ending the dictatorial rule (of Modi) is our common minimum programme," Naidu maintained. Naidu pointed out that the Trinamool Congress and the Congress did not have any electoral alliance in West Bengal.

Naidu’s TDP had tied up with the Congress in Telangana assembly elections but the alliance did not really work on the ground. The Congress ended up with 19 seats of the 119; TDP with just about 2.

"The TDP allied with us only at the national level, so we will have no truck (with it) in the state," Chandy had said. The TDP chief Thursday alleged that the YSR Congress and BJP were engaged in committing crimes and heinous acts while the TRS wanted an inefficient person in power.

"All these (parties) only know to hatch conspiracies," he said. Naidu referred to his government's decision to earmark five percent reservation for upper caste Kapus of the ten percent quota for economically weaker sections provided by the Centre recently and wanted to know the YSR Congress and the BJPs stand on the matter.

The YSR Congress chief, Jagan Mohan Reddy, previously said Kapu reservation was not in his purview and now he is opposing five percent quota to the community, Naidu claimed.

BJP found fault with the Kapu quota, he added.

The Chief Minister said his government not only fulfilled all promises made in the TDPs 2014 election manifesto but also did much more.

"We promised Rs 1000 as (social security) pension but now we have enhanced it to Rs 2000. We promised Rs 10,000 each to self-help group women but are now giving Rs 20,000. We doubled the income of 97 percent farmers in the state," Naidu claimed.