Union Budget: TDP MPs To Meet On Feb 4 To Discuss Raw Deal To AP

Amaravati: Angry over what it called a "raw deal" meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget, the BJP's ally TDP has summoned an emergency meeting of the party MPs here on February 4 to discuss the next course of action.

The TDP, a partner in the BJP-led NDA government, is, however, not yet ready to pull the plug on the alliance, but only wants to make the Centre "realise" about its "strong displeasure", a senior party leader said. TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the budget with some senior ministers here this evening and also held a tele-conference with party MPs, he said.

All the party leaders expressed "serious displeasure" over the Union Budget as it "gave nothing" to the state. TDP MPs, who earlier met at the residence of Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary in New Delhi, flayed the Centre for handing out a raw deal to the southern state in the Budget. Naidu also spoke with them through the teleconference.

A couple of MPs reportedly suggested that they would quit their posts in protest but the party supremo reportedly told them everything would be discussed at the TDP Parliamentary Party meeting on Sunday, according to the leader. A few senior state ministers, who were closeted with the chief minister after the Budget presentation, noted that the Centre only "meted out injustice" by not honouring any of the promises made over the past four years.

"Jaitley seems to have completely forgotten AP while presenting the Budget though we have given him a detailed report on the funds due from the Centre to the state," Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said after the meeting with the Chief Minister. "We are very much pained that the Centre turned a blind eye whereas AP should have been looked at specially. We will let the Centre realise our displeasure. We will have no objection if it responds favourably. But if it continues to behave the same way it has been doing over the (past four) years...it is not justified," Somireddy noted.

PTI