Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday said that Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders will hold a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the latter arrives for a rally in Guntur on Sunday.
Naidu, the chief of the TDP, is now openly supporting the so-called grand alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“Tomorrow is a dark day. PM Modi is going to witness the injustice done to Andhra by him. Modi is weakening states and constitutional institutions,” he said.
“PMO’s intervention in Rafale deal is disrespect to the nation. We will do a peaceful Gandhian protest with yellow-and-black shirts and balloons,” he said.
PM Modi’s visit to Guntur will be his first to Andhra Pradesh since the TDP withdrew from the BJP-led NDA government over the Centre’s failure to accord the Special Category status under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014.
On Friday, slogans against PM Modi were raised in Tirupati University by various student groups.
The students who staged the protest in Tirupati on Friday recalled that it was at the same university that Modi, while addressing an election rally in 2014, had promised Special Category status to the state.
They alleged that Modi has gone back on the promise made in front of Lord Venkateswara.
Naidu will also stage a sit-in on 11 February in New Delhi for which the Andhra Pradesh government has hired two special trains at a cost of Rs 1.12 crore to ferry people to New Delhi.
The trains will leave from Ananthapur and Srikakulam with leaders of political parties, organisations, NGOs and associations today, and will reach New Delhi at 10 am on Sunday for the day-long protest.
It is expected that leaders of various non-BJP parties will join Naidu in this protest.
Meanwhile, Naidu also attacked YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the main opposition leader in Andhra Pradesh, for not opposing PM Modi.
“Opposition leader in state YS Jagan Mohan Reddy won’t speak a word against him. It proves their collusion,” he alleged.
Simultaneous elections to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the Lok Sabha are likely to be held in April this year.