Amit Shah hits out at TDP, YSRC as dynastic parties

Rajahmahendravaram: BJP national president Amit Shah on Thursday said that the Andhra Pradesh chief minister had not only betrayed NTR but also former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and now Narendra Modi. Interestingly for the first time, Shah chose to make a comment on YSRCP president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

Addressing a meeting of party workers, the BJP chief said both TDP and YSR Congress parties are corrupt and dynastic parties who cannot do any good for Andhra. He said only BJP can develop the state but he did not explain under whose government the state could progress since BJP has no chance of coming to power in Andhra Pradesh.

Referring to the TDP leader's statement on Pulwama terror attack, the Bharatiya Janata Party chief alleged that Naidu trusts Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan and not the Indian Prime Minister. "One should not stoop down to this level for his political interests," he said.

Reiterating his oft-repeated general statement on what the Centre had done for Andhra Pradesh, Shah claimed that the Centre provided all required funds for the development of state capital Amaravati and for construction of Polavaram project but the TDP government could not spend the money properly.

"There is massive corruption in implementation of these projects," he said. He pointed out that 10 of 14 tasks of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act were completed by the Modi government in five years though the time-frame was 10 years.

He said the Modi government has given 20 major institutions, including IIT, IIIT, NIT, IIM, AIIMS, and central and tribal universities to Andhra Pradesh but Chandrababu Naidu is still accusing the Centre of not helping the state for its development.

Shah said various projects with investment of over Rs 55,400 crore were launched in coastal Andhra, adding that work would soon start on Kakinada Greenfield Petrochemical Complex in which HPCL and GAIL together propose to invest over Rs 1 lakh crore.

"Chandrababu Naidu sits on dharna in Delhi, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. If he wishes to sit on dharna, then he should sit in front of his party office which in the past five years has not worked for the development of Andhra," said Shah.

Turning his ire towards Congress hours after AICC chief Rahul Gandhi made allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to shoot for his promotional video after the attack in Pulwama, BJP national president Amit Shah took strong objection to the accusations.

The public meeting was organised to launch a nationwide campaign by the BJP to reach out to beneficiaries of various Central government schemes, ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Shah visited the home of a Dalit woman P Jyoti, who got the house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

He said Modi has fulfilled dreams of millions of Indians like her and claimed that the largest number of beneficiaries of this scheme are from Andhra Pradesh.