National-level alliance needed to counter BJP in 2019 polls: Andhra CM

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday said that a national-level alliance is the need of the hour to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2019 general elections.

Talking to TDP Member of Parliaments (MPs), Naidu said, "The Lok Sabha election is just five to six months away. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has utterly failed in controlling the fuel prices, and we are seeing, how the value of the currency is depleting. A national level alliance should be built."

Stepping up his attack on the BJP, he said, "BJP's image has fallen down drastically across the country. The demonetisation has been an utter flop and has led to negative growth. The Centre also hampered confidnce on the banking sectors. The Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) have grown six, seven times more than what it was before. The BJP leaders have no basic knowledge on the economy and the finance."

The TDS supremo also blamed the BJP for failing to deliver on the demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

"We have to give back to the injustice done to the state by the BJP. It neither implement the reorganisation act nor it did give special category status to Andhra Pradesh. For that, we need support of non-BJP parties at the national level. We have to work with like-minded parties and it is a democratic compulsion," Naidu added.

He also alleged that the BJP is conspiring with both Y.S Jagamohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to weaken the TDP in the state.

"The BJP has long started to conspire against the TDP and weaken us, when it announced no coalition of with us in Telangana. The BJP entered into a secret pact with YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh and TRS in Telangana. There are even raids in the state which are being done to create fear in the minds of the people," Naidu stated.