Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, bugled a warning on his party’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, 1 February, after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018-19.

Clearly disappointed with the Budget, Naidu called a meeting with his party leaders in Amaravati and discussed the lack of any allocations for the state and the future course of action with regard to the alliance.

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The chief of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is believed to have told his Cabinet of the “injustice” meted out to the state. He will be holding another meeting on Sunday, 4 February.

Reacting to the Budget, TDP lawmaker in the Parliament and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology & Earth Sciences, YS Chowdary, said that the Budget was “deeply disappointing”. He added that many key projects that would be necessary for the growth of Andhra Pradesh are hanging in the balance because of a lack of allotments.

Chowdary said that issues like the Railway Zone, Polavaram project funding, funding for capital city of Amaravati and other pending issues of Andhra Pradesh were not addressed in the budget.

“The Polavaram project was linked to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), but there was no smooth flow of funds. The budget should have included it,” he said.

He underlined that the Budget 2018-19 made no mention of the Metro in Vizag and Vijayawada. The Andhra Pradesh government will continue to put pressure on the Centre till 2019 elections.

On Saturday, 27 January, Naidu had stated that if the BJP is not keen on the alliance, his party will chart its own course.

Talking to reporters, the TDP chief had said he was adhering to coalition “dharma” by reining in his party leaders from reacting to their statements.

“Because of coalition dharma, we are keeping quiet. If they don’t want us, we will do the ‘namaskaram’ and chart our own course,” remarked Naidu.

The TDP is a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre while the BJP is the junior ally in TDP-led government in the state.

He said the TDP had been waiting for four years for the BJP to help the state come out of the difficult situation created by its division.

(With inputs from agencies.)