Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu questions PM Modi's fast

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to observe a fast protesting washout of recent Parliament session, alleging it was the Centre which ensured the disruption by provoking AIADMK over the Cauvery issue.

Referring to tomorrow's day-long fast by Modi along with BJP MPs, he claimed the Centre did not constitute the Cauvery Management Board because of coming elections in Karnataka.

"They provoked the AIADMK and ensured" that the MPs of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu stormed the well of the Lok Sabha and thereby did not allow TDP to raise its demand (for grant of special category status to Andhra Pradesh), he said here.

"How atrocious? And now he (Prime Minister) says he will observe protest...seeking to portray the opposition as wrong and he is right. Is it correct? Is it justified," the Chief Minister questioned.

Naidu, whose party recently snapped ties with the NDA, was addressing a meeting in connection with the birth anniversary celebrations of social activist Jyotirao Phule.

"A person of the stature of Prime Minister should stand by his word…should keep his word. It is not correct for him to provoke people of different states and foment hatred," he said in a hard-hitting speech.

Stating that Modi had made an election-eve promise in 2014 to eradicate corruption within one year, the TDP chief wanted to know what happened to it.

He had also promised that trials in criminal cases against political leaders would be completed in a time-bound manner and the guilty punished, Naidu said.

"But what is he doing now? What sort of signals is he giving by sheltering those facing corruption cases....," he charged.

He alleged that the Modi government had taken into its grip Tamil Nadu politics and wanted to do so in Andhra Pradesh also.

"They are thinking of winning seats with the support of another party but their games will not succeed in Andhra," he said.

The TDP would organise a 'massive' public meeting in the temple-town Tirupati on April 30 to remind Modi of the promises he made to the state exactly on the day four years ago, Naidu said.

After exiting the NDA, the TDP had moved a notice for a no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha against the Modi government on the issue of special category status.