The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is planning to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal for “lying” about the special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
According to reports, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is also the chief of the TDP, has asked his MPs to move the motion against the top leadership of the government for “misleading” the House during a debate on the no-confidence motion.
Naidu said the Centre claiming it had fulfilled 90 per cent of the promises made in AP Reorganisation Act was misleading.
TDP MP YS Chowdary had on Tuesday accused the Modi government of “centrally-sponsored lynching” of Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Chowdary, a former Union Minister during the TDP alliance with NDA, said the “offence” of the people of Andhra Pradesh was that they “believed in the BJP for about four long years”.
“The underground drainage project for Guntur city itself costs ₹1000Cr. How do you expect us to build a smart, greenfield capital city with just ₹1500 Cr?” asked TDP MP Jay Galla on Twitter.
The central government had on Tuesday ruled out giving special category status to Andhra Pradesh and said the bifurcated state had got a better deal.
Rajnath Singh had said the BJP-led central government had fulfilled “around 90 per cent” of the commitments made under the Andhra Act and was “committed” to fulfil the rest “at any cost”.
The Home Minister was replying to a nearly four-hour debate in the Rajya Sabha on special category status to the residual state of Andhra Pradesh.
During a debate on Tuesday, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government “remains committed” to the Andhra Act “to ensure the welfare of state of Andhra Pradesh and people of Andhra Pradesh”.
The TDP quit the alliance with the NDA in March this year over the Centre’s refusal to grant special category status to AP.
Naidu’s party said that the PM’s logic behind his inability to grant special category status to Andhra while quoting the 14th Finance Commission is a wrong interpretation.
The Congress has already submitted a privilege motion against the PM and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Rafale deal accusing the two leaders of “misleading the House” on the commercial value of the fighter jet deal.