TDP closely watching national political scene after ‘talaq’ with BJP

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, speaking in state capital Amaravati on Friday, asserted that the alliance with the BJP had fetched nothing for his Telugu Desam Party in the 2014 elections. At a meeting with party leaders and in his regular teleconference with party MPs, Naidu took stock of the situation after the TDP quit the Modi government on Thursday after accusing it of failing to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. On Friday, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignations of TDP union ministers P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and YS Chowdary.

Naidu is said to have pointed out that the TDP had polled a good percentage of votes when it contested alone in the local bodies elections in Andhra Pradesh in 2014. The same percentage was retained by the TDP in the Assembly and General elections a few months later when it went to polls in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said.

TDP MPs informed Naidu that many parties in Parliament supported the TDP's decision to pull out of the Modi government. Several ministers and leaders in the state also told him that 98% of the people in the state were appreciative of the "timely and right" decision.

Naidu formed a team of senior TDP leaders including Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu, Kala Venkat Rao, S Chandramohan Reddy and Ch Kutumba Rao to follow the political developments at the national level.

In Delhi, TDP Lok Sabha MP JC Diwakar Reddy told the media that the TDP's 'talaq' (divorce) with the BJP was over. "When a wife and husband separate, they continue to interact with each other about the future of their children. It is their responsibility. Our meetings with BJP hereafter are like that," he said.