Media blitzkrieg won’t help Narendra Modi

Vijayawada: In a vituperative attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday described him as one who lived on publicity, but he should know that it would not go to his rescue at the time of the hustings in 2019.

“I am sure the BJP would not return to power at the Centre. Narendra Modi has failed on all fronts. All his populist schemes have come unstuck. His media blitzkrieg will not have any impact on voters,” Naidu said.

Chandrababu Naidu, in his presidential address on the inaugural day of 34th three-day Mahanadu, Telugu Desam Party’s annual conclave, where the party ‘s roadmap for the following year is finalised, called the BJP to account on why it had reneged on its promises made to the people of Andhra Pradesh.  

Naidu’s focus throughout his address was Narendra Modi and how his schemes had remained non-starters. “Has anyone benefited from any of the Prime Minister’s programmes?” Naidu asked, eliciting response from the audience.

The Chief Minister reiterated that the Telugu Desam Party would play a crucial role at the national level after the 2019 elections. “Already regional parties are coming together which is a sign of consolidation of forces against the BJP. The momentum will continue, and it would finally oust the BJP. No matter what tricks the BJP would play, it would not come to power again,” Naidu said.

The Chief Minister sought to ridicule the claim of the Prime Minister that he was dead against corruption by saying that the BJP leaders had resorted to bribe MLAs of the Opposition parties brazenly to tilt the scale of majority in saffron party’s favour ahead of the BS Yeddyurappa’s trial of strength in Karnataka.  Naidu tried to call Modi’s “bluff” that he would implement MS Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations for the benefit of farm sector which is in distress.

Naidu singled out Modi’s programmes and how they remained dead ducks. “Make in India, Start UP India and Stand Up India had only remained slogans as they had not come to any help to anyone,” he said. He also referred to the GST regime that had been ushered in leading to the common man’s cup of woes. 

Describing demonetisation of high value currency as one of Modi’s egregious blunders, Naidu pointed out how it had boomeranged, destroying the banking system altogether. “People’s faith in banking sector had taken a hard knock with the demonetisation decision. For a long time, people had to suffer unable to lay their hands on their own money which they have saved in banks.

This apart, the scams that had broken out in banks had rudely shaken people’s faith that their money would be safe there,” Chandrababu Naidu said and referred to a survey report that 61 per cent of total corruption in India was in the Central government.

Naidu once again tried to lay bare BJP’s design of taking over the Tirumala Temple through backdoor method and how the BJP was now instigating trouble in Tirumala to discredit the state government. BJP had been spewing venom on the TDP since it questioned it why it had not delivered Special Category Status and why it had not honoured the assurances made in the AP State Reorganisation Act.

“Modi is trying to poke his nose into the AP affairs just as the way he did in Tamil Nadu, using Cauvery water dispute as a political device.  But his game plan will not work in Andhra Pradesh,” Naidu said. Mahanadu is expected to adopt as many as 34 resolutions during its three-day conclave of which the political resolution would be adopted on the final day. Several delegates and leaders from Telangana state too took part in the deliberations at the conclave.