Hyderabad: Severe criticism of the Andhra Pradesh government by the ruling party’s own Member of Parliament N Sivaprasad has left the Telugu Desam Party in a shock and the party president N Chandrababu Naidu fuming.
While participating in Dr B R Ambedkar’s birth anniversary celebrations in Chittoor on Friday, N Sivaprasad, who represents Chittoor (SC) reserve constituency in Lok Sabha, made a stringent attack on the state government over the neglect of the scheduled castes.
“Governments are changing, but there is no change in the lot of the scheduled castes,” he said. He also criticised Naidu for ignoring Dalits in the recent cabinet expansion. Only two were given berths as against a promised five.
Sivaprasad who had earlier been very close to Naidu, came down heavily on the state government and the TDP leadership for failing to fulfil the promise of giving priority to Dalits in welfare activities as well as in the government.
He said it was painful for him that the budget allocated under the SC/ST sub-plan was being diverted.
The sharp criticism from within left Chandrababu Naidu so angry that he held a video conference with the other party leaders this morning and asked them to counter Sivaprasad’s criticism. The CM told them that Sivaprasad had recommended the allotment of land for some purpose which had not been accepted. He said he would not tolerate anything which had a personal agenda behind it.
Sivaprasad on the other hand told the media on Saturday that he was pained that sincere workers were being ignored while new entrants poisoning the mind of Naidu against leaders like him.
Sivasprasad said that all his attempts in the recent past to meet Naidu to discuss the problems of SCs had failed. “Recently, I went to meet him in Vijayawada, but he asked to meet a bureaucrat Satish Chandra and left the place,” he said.
