YSRCP launching welfare schemes only to hoodwink people: BJP

Tirupati: BJP national secretary Y Satya Kumar said that development will be the poll plank of the BJP in the by-election for Tirupati Lok Sabha. Speaking to media here on Saturday, the senior BJP leader claimed that his party fulfilled 90 per cent of the assurances made in the AP Reorganization Act resulting in many national level institutions coming up in the state particularly in Tirupati covered under Rs 2,000 crore Smart City project including the much beneficial Garuda Varadhi – Elevated Expressway and also another Rs 2,000 crore for IIT, ISER and International Airport.

He said both the regional parties YSRCP and TDP have failed in developing the state particularly the YSRCP which concentrated only on populist welfare schemes and totally ignored assets creation and employment generation, the two key factors for the development of the state. "The YSRCP government launching the schemes one after another only to hoodwink the people," he said. Satya Kumar criticised the YSRCP government for not allotting the houses the construction of which was completed to the poor beneficiaries leaving them in lurch. He said that the Centre liberally provided funds for the housing programme in the state where construction of 3.47 lakh houses were completed. The BJP leader said that after discussion with the alliance partner Jana Sena Party (JSP), the candidate for the by-election will be announced and added that the two parties jointly take up the campaign with sole aim of winning the seat which would herald a new era for the party in the state.

Answering a question on Special Category Status, Satya Kumar said that as the 14th Finance Commission did away with it, the Centre has no other way except offering special package equivalent to the status benefits to AP.

BJP state spokespersons G Bhanu Prakash Reddy, S Srinivas and JSP senior leader Dr Hariprasad were present.