TDP angry over AP being 'ignored' in Budget, declares 'war' on ally BJP

The party leadership has summoned an emergency meeting of the party MPs in Amravati on February 4 to discuss the next course of action.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu tweeted this picture of his meeting with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi on January 17.

New Delhi: A day after expressing anger over the Union Budget 2018, a senior member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) declared “war” on its alliance partner BJP. “We are going to declare war (on the BJP). We now have three options. One is to try and continue. The second is that our MPs resign and the third is breaking off this alliance. We will decide (our course of action) in a meeting with CM Naidu on Sunday,” TG Venkatesh, TDP MP, reportedly said outside Parliament on Friday. The TDP which is an ally of BJP said Andhra Pradesh received a "raw deal" in the Union Budget. The party leadership has summoned an emergency meeting of the party MPs in Amravati 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 told news agency PTI. ALSO READ: Major setback for BJP, TDP Chief Naidu talks about breaking alliance 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 reportedly 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. According to PTI, A couple of MPs suggested that they would give up their posts but the party supremo reportedly told them everything would be discussed at the TDP Parliamentary Party meeting on Sunday. 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. (With PTI inputs)