Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu ruled himself out of the race for prime ministership, but predicted that his party would play the role of a king maker after 2019 polls.
Addressing the annual conference of the Telangana unit of the TDP in Hyderabad, Naidu recalled the key role the party had played in the formation of National Front and the United Front government at the Centre.
“Our party founder NT Rama Rao had played a key role in the formation of National Front government in 1989 and I was responsible for TRS formation of United Front government and making Deve Gowda Prime Minister in 1996”, he said.
Naidu said that he was offered the Prime Minister’s post twice 20 years ago but he preferred to serve Andhra Pradesh.
Making it clear that he was not in the race for the top position, Naidu said that he will play a key role in bringing the regional parties together.
Referring to his meeting with the leaders of regional parties in Bengaluru, he said that he had gone there on the invitation of Chief Minister-designate Kumaraswamy. “After the formation of the United Front in 1996, no such experiment was done to bring the regional parties together,” he said. The leaders will meet once again to chalk out plan of action.
He did not go into the details of the fact that he had met the Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul for the first time.
On the speculations about the possibility of TDP aligning with the Congress. he advised his party men to focus on strengthening the party in both the Telugu states. “In politics we should not disclose our future moves. We will take appropriate decision at the appropriate time,” he said.
He also predicted that like Karnataka, Telangana will also give a fractured mandate in the next elections and the TDP will play an important role in that state too.
Lashing out at the BJP, he said that while the Centre was giving Rs30 billion for the statue of Sardar Patel and generously funding a statue of Shivaji, it did not release required funds to Andhra Pradesh.
Explaining the circumstances in which he decided to withdraw from the NDA and its government, Naidu said he waited for the four budgets. “Only when it became clear that the Centre was not going to fulfil the promise of Special Category Status and the funds for the capital city Amaravati we decided to end the alliance,” he said.
Naidu also criticised the Centre for not fulfilling the promises made to Telangana like setting up the Bayyaram steel plant and the tribal university.
