Will Remain with NDA; Want my Work Done

Into his third year as chief minister of post-bifurcation Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu is an angry man. Angry that the Centre is yet to grant the state the special category status it was promised before bifurcation. A lion’s share of the blame for that, he says, goes to the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, which “mishandled” the bifurcation and failed to keep its promise to give the residual state its due.

- Lalita Iyer

His Telugu Desam Party is part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which came to power at the Centre in 2014. But the special status continues to elude the state, and Naidu feels the Centre is unnecessarily stalling the matter.

There is talk that he wants to pull out of the NDA. But then, Naidu knows that a confrontation with the Centre will not help his cause. Excepts from an interview: 

The special category status is hanging fire. What is your backup plan to raise money for development? 

Had the Congress carried out the bifurcation impartially, we would not have had any problem. The bifurcation act is one-sided. Debt and liabilities are on the basis of population. Assets and income are on the basis of location. Salaries and pension, again, are on the basis of population. Power is on the basis of consumption. The payments for industries based in Andhra Pradesh have been deferred. Though they are located here, they continue to pay taxes in Hyderabad.

They [the Congress] should have held an all-party meeting to discuss the special status for Andhra Pradesh. But all their actions were only to show that they were doing a favour to Telangana. They wanted to force people to go to [YSR Congress leader] Jagan mohan Reddy. That is the strategy they used, thinking that I would be finished. But that plan boomeranged. People are very smart.

Once the BJP came to power, they gave some assurances. When Modiji came here, he gave very clear assurances, and that is why people are angry with him. They [the BJP] never bothered about Bhadrachalam. It should have been given to Andhra Pradesh.