TDP upset with Budget, but won't snap ties

New Delhi/Amaravati: Amid talks of growing rift between the BJP and key ally N. Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, BJP president Amit Shah held a meeting with party leaders from Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Shah met party leaders from the state on Thursday and discussed organisation related issues.

Some bifurcation-related issues also came up for discussion and Mr Shah, it was learnt, was told that if not sorted out, the Opposition could use them against the NDA.

The TDP, which had sided with the Opposition parties in Parliament over triple talaq bill, had termed the Union Budget 2018-19 “disappointing” for not allocating funds for key projects in the state, including funding for the state capital Amaravati. But the party won’t opt out of the alliance yet, TDP sources said.

This was indicated by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at a meeting of the party’s coordination committee on Friday, the sources said.

Discussion at the meeting centred around the Narendra Modi government’s treatment of Andhra Pradesh and the “injustice” heaped on the state in the budget proposals, the sources said.

However, there is a “strong mood” among TDP leaders to break away from the alliance with the BJP, the sources said.

There was no formal communication about what transpired at the meeting, but some senior TDP leaders said off the record that almost everyone, including many district unit chiefs, wanted the TDP to end the alliance with the BJP after the Budget “ignored” the state.

The party sources said that Naidu apparently dissuaded his senior party colleagues from speaking about the fate of the alliance with the BJP and dwelt on the Rajasthan bypoll results where the BJP tasted defeat.

The TDP has also been demanding special category status for the state since it was bifurcated in 2014 but the Centre had been rejecting it so far. The Andhra Pradesh ruling party has also been demanding a railway zone and funding for Polavaram project.