The special package offered to Andhra Pradesh is four times better than the Special Category Status (SCS), according to BJP national secretary Sunil Deodhar.
While ₹4,000 crore would have come to the State under SCS, ₹16,000 crore was offered under the special package, Mr. Deodhar told the media here on Sunday.
Asking the YSRCP government not to beat around the bush on the SCS issue, Mr. Deodhar claimed that the Centre had fulfilled 90% of the promises made to A.P., and the remaining would be fulfilled in the next five years.
Launching a broadside against former Chief Minister and TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, the BJP leader said the State had suffered a policy paralysis under his rule. The formation of Janmabhoomi committees was unconstitutional, he alleged. Calling the TDP chief as “corrupt and casteist,” Mr. Deodhar said N. Lokesh was given prominence in the TDP only because he was Mr. Naidu’s son.
The YSRCP had come to power because of the anti-TDP sentiment and not because of its president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, he claimed. Mr. Deodhar, however, lauded Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy for announcing “progressive policies.” The BJP leader said the party would take on the government if it did not implement the policies effectively.
On the party’s membership drive, he said the goal was to enrol one lakh members in each LS constituency and 10,000 in each Assembly constituency.