(Our Political Desk)

Knives are out and the battle is reaching its claimax.  Yes, the widening rift between the TDP and BJP has reached a flash point with the party MPs finding fault with the Finance Minister for not find their 'Special status' demand in the budget 2018-19 presented by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday.

They claim its violation of coalition 'dharma'. In fact, the TDP chief and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had peronally made a request to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate funds to the State as mandated by the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. 

No sooner Jaitley ended his speech, Naidu went into a huddle with his Cabinet colleagues and held a teleconference with party MPs where some offered to resign. T

The Chief Minister is learnt to have expressed his deep dissatisfaction but advised party leaders to exercise restraint.

“It is true, some MPs have offered to resign, but the Chief Minister asked them to hold on. He said we have to consider the larger interests of the State. The Parliamentary Party meeting has been convened on Sunday, where all these issues will be discussed and a decision will be taken regarding alliance as well as getting funds for the State,” admitted a TDP senior functionary on condition of anonymity.

Growing unrest among the people over TDP leader's failure to convince the Centre to accord promised 'special status' to the state, indeed pushed Naidu to the wall.  In the last four years, the Centre had also been miserly at best in releasing funds to the State.

For example, out of an estimated Rs 10,000 crore for the construction of the new capital city Amaravati, it has so far released a meagre Rs 2,500 crore;. Similarly, for the Polavaram project, though declared as a national project, it has reimbursed Rs 4,323 crore while the actual expenditure till date has been pegged at Rs 7,431 crore. IAdded to that, the Centre had sanctioned just `4,117.89 crore out to cushion the Rs 16,000-crore revenue deficit inherited at the time of bifurcation of the State in 2014-15. 

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy told mediapersons that the State Cabinet would discuss its future course of action in the meeting to be held on Friday.  

“It was disappointing. Though the State was to be given special treatment, considering the losses it suffered post bifurcation, there has been no consideration from the Centre whatsoever,” he said.

The Agriculture Minister also pointed out that the allocation to well-developed States such as Maharashtra and Karnataka were impressive, compared to the sorry treatment meted out to Andhra Pradesh. “If only the Centre showered its love on Amaravati as it did with other cities,” he thought aloud.

The State had hoped for some announcement on at least the promised railway zone in Vizag. But there has been no mention of it in the budget or the steel plant in Kadapa or Dugarajapatnam port for that matter.

Recently, following differences with the Centre over inviting tenders for a part of the Polavaram works, the Chief Minister had threatened to move the Supreme Court, citing the former’s indifference to implement provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act.

The Centre’s action or rather inaction has put Naidu on the defensive in an election year. Against this backdrop, the budget could well be the proverbial last straw. But as Minister Ayyanna Patrudu pointed out, “The BJP is likely to retain power at the Centre in 2019. Can we get funding from the Centre then if we pull out of alliance now? We have to take a decision carefully in view of the State’s precarious financial condition.”

The State BJP, on its part, was muted in its reaction. BJP State president and Visakhapatnam MP K Haribabu claimed, “It is just a perception, no injustice was done to Andhra Pradesh in budgetary allocations.” Pressed on TDP leaders’ comments, the State BJP president cited coalition dharma to keep mum on the matter.