BJP alliance cost AP a lot: Naidu

​Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday sought to debunk the argument that he won 2014 elections because the BJP had backed him. "This is a campaign that the BJP is carrying out against us. On the contrary, we have lost 15 assembly seats because of the alliance with the saffron party," Naidu said in the Assembly while narrating the injustice the BJP dispensation had meted out to the state.

Naidu, covering the entire gamut of issues at stake including Special Category Status (SCS) and unkept promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, said that the BJP owed an explanation to the five-crore people of Andhra Pradesh why it had gone back on the assurances.

"We have not been asking for the moon. We have not sought funds meant for ensuring security to the country from foreign aggression. We are only asking for what you have promised. In return we are getting a mouthful from you," Naidu said.

The Chief Minister, referring to funding for Amaravati, said that after releasing Rs 1,400 crore, the BJP leaders began attacking the government. "A few others are coming out with books on whether the state needed the kind of Amaravati that he had projected. I wanted to build a people’s capital. I want to secure the future of today’s youth. Amaravati is not meant to serve my personal interest,” he said, acknowledging the support he got from farmers who gave up their lands worth Rs. 50,000 crore for the construction of the capital.

Referring to the promise of Special Category Status, the Chief Minister wanted to know why AP should not get the status at a time when the North Eastern states were having the tag and were getting all the benefits that go with it. "Why are you (BJP) discriminating against Andhra Pradesh? I am using all my experience to ensure a comfortable and decent living for people,” he said.

Reacting sharply to the allegation that he was moving closer to the Congress since he had a political axe to grind, the Chief Minister said that it was nothing but a campaign of calumny. “Some parties are spewing up verbal venom at the TDP government that it had been steeped in a quagmire of corruption. But we have remained above board and that was the reason why no one could point an accusing finger at us," Naidu said.

Reeling off the promises made for the state, ad infinitum, Naidu wanted to know why the Centre was not initiating steps for construction of port at Dugarajpatnam, why no funds were released for Visakhapatnam Metro, why the Centre had reversed Rs 350 crore credited to AP account meant for development of backward areas in the state. “The Centre says the Utilisation Certificates submitted by the state government were fake. This is only to defame the TDP,” he said.

Referring to his recent visit to Delhi, Naidu said that while he was trying to elicit support for the demand for SCS from other parties, some people released books in Vijayawada questioning construction of Amaravati. "When I gave interviews to national media, the PMO steps in and asks some channels to stop their transmission," he said.

Taking pot-shots at YS Jagan Mohan Reddy without naming him, Naidu said that some leaders had become stooges of the central government so that they could get off the hook of cases filed against them. “I never hankered after power even when I had 29 MPs with me. I always kept people's interests uppermost in my mind,” he said.

Later, the Assembly adopted a resolution protesting against the attitude of the Centre in keeping the promises of according SCS and extending other benefits. The resolution demanded that Parliament be convened immediately to discuss the implementation of the promises. The Assembly condemned the way the Centre had acted in preventing the no-confidence motion moved by the TDP from being taken up for discussion in Lok Sabha.