Chandrababu Naidu’s all-out attack on Narendra Modi

Peruru (Anantapur): Not showing any signs of fatigue in attacking the BJP, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday warned the Centre of consequences if it went back on the promises made to the people of Andhra Pradesh. "I will bring the Centre go down on its knees and give the state what is due to it," he said.

Addressing a public meeting at the Peruru village after laying the foundation stone for the Peruru canal construction, Naidu took exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that he (Naidu) lacked maturity as though he (Modi) was mature enough.

"I was the Chief Minister of AP even before Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. It is his immaturity to state that I fell into Jagan Reddy's trap by taking a U-Turn on special category status issue. On the contrary, it was he who fell into the YSRCP trap by moving closer to it," Naidu said.

Not slackening his tirade, Naidu said Modi was lowering the dignity of his office by making insinuations against him. "Modi, lacing his words in sarcasm, said he would organise felicitation to me.

What does he mean by that? He is indirectly threatening me of harassment," he said. Naidu asserted that he would not be cowed down by such threats. The Prime Minister, instead of crediting the money he promised in the citizens accounts had made the common man's life miserable with his demonetisation misadventure. The common man is still standing in queues for withdrawing their hard-earned money. The banks are on the verge of bankruptcy. They are converting the deposits of people into equity, he said.

During his electioneering and in BJP manifesto, Modi promised to bring back black money from Swiss Banks. He also promised to credit Rs 15 lakh in every citizen's account after bringing back black money. He simply forgot his promises after becoming Prime Minister, Naidu said. The Chief Minister devoted major part of his speech to lambast the Prime Minister and the BJP.

Interacting with people at Grama Darshini earlier, the Chief Minister called upon the people of the district to help TDP win 14 of the 14 Assembly seats and two MP seats and thus help party come back to power to complete the mission to develop the state.

Naidu said that 2019 elections will be very crucial. TDP needs to win all the 25 MP seats if the state is to command influence in the Central government and extract its pound of flesh for the development of AP state. He said the TDP would be the deciding factor in who would form the government. He maintained that the people of Karnataka had responded to his call and defeated the BJP and brought JD(U) to power.

The Chief Minister said he had focused on the district because it is backward, and a majority of the people are living in poverty. He said he was trying to change the landscape of the district. "Forty-five lakh acres of land has already been brought under drip and sprinkler irrigation and Rs 807 crore had already been spent on minor irrigation.