AP CM calls on people to shun Modi visit

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday called on the people of the state to protest the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 January.

Addressing “Dharma Porata Sabha” in Anantapur, the chief minister said that the prime minister should visit the state only after he fulfilled the promises that he made to the people of the state.

Unleashing a diatribe against Modi, Naidu asked, “Why are you coming here? To see if the people of the state are alive or not?”

He said that people of the state have been cheated by the rulers of the country time and again. “We were thrown out of Tamilnadu, then from Hyderabad. The prime minister promised special category status and a capital bigger than Delhi. But he has not kept his promises. We feel cheated,” Naidu said.

Coming down heavily on the Opposition YSRCP, Naidu charged that Jaganmohan Reddy has been keeping mum fearing the revival of a CBI investigation against him that has been put to sleep at the behest of Modi.

He further said that the Janasena chief has constituted a fact-finding committee which has concluded that the Centre has to give Rs 70,000 crore to the state, but now he is also silent. "They are both attacking me, whereas I am struggling to make both ends meet,” Naidu said.

He said that he will be laying foundation for the Kadapa steel plant on Thursday, while the Centre was supposed to build it as a part of the Bifurcation Act.

“We have spent Rs 3500 crore on Polavaram even though it is a national project. TDP leaders and people’s representatives were hounded by the CBI and the ED as they criticised Modi on the floor of the Lok Sabha,” Naidu explained.

In a warning to the BJP, he said, "those who pick a fight with the people of Andhra Pradesh will bite the dust."

Modi will visit the state on January 6 and will address public meetings at different places in the state, BJP East Godavari unit president Y Malakondayya said in Kakinada. However, the venues of the public meetings are yet to be decided, he said.

Party sources said that the prime minister will certainly make an important announcement for the people of the state during his visit to the state.