How PM, Jaitley pushed TDP to exit NDA
March 08, 2018  12:01
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Speaking to the Andhra Pradesh assembly this morning, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said two ministers of his Telugu Desam Party have quit the central government today.


The ties between allies TDP and the ruling BJP soured after Naidu failed to secure a special category status for Andhra Pradesh.


"Our ministers in central cabinet and BJP ministers in our cabinet have resigned. However, these ministers worked good in the state. They brought considerable reforms in their departments. I thank them for their services," Naidu told the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.


"What Arun Jaitley spoke yesterday is not good. You are holding the hand of the North Eastern states but not Andhra Pradesh's hand. You are giving industrial incentives to them, not to Andhra Pradesh. Why this discrimination?"


On Wednesday evening, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Centre was happy to give Andhra Pradesh funds equivalent to what a special category state received, but giving it "special category status" as demanded by Naidu was not possible as the 14th Finance Commission had scrapped the scheme for all but north-eastern and three hill states. He said he felt hurt and angered at the discrimination.


Arriving at his decision to quit the NDA, Naidu said yesterday that he had tried to speak to PM Modi on the phone as a courtesy to inform him about the decision to pull out of the government, but the prime minister did not come on line, NDTV reported.
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