Daggubati Purandeswari, a former federal minister and current general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, took over as president of the Andhra Pradesh BJP unit on Thursday but declined to commit to a coalition with the Telugu Desam Party for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Purandeswari informed reporters that the party’s national leadership will investigate the matter of forming coalitions with other parties in the state after taking over the reins. But she said that the BJP will maintain its cordial ties with the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party.
“Our previous Andhra BJP chief Somu Veerraju had frequent communication with Pawan Kalyan. Our friendly party is the Jana Sena Party, she said.
The BJP leaders and cadre gave Purandeswari a warm greeting at the Gannavaram airport. She was joined by politicians such as Y Satya Kumar, Somu Veerraju, and former chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.
She presented floral tributes to her late father, former chief minister N T Rama Rao, at his Samadhi in Hyderabad before taking a flight to Vijayawada.
She pledged to make every effort to support the BJP in the state. “In the state, vicious information has been spread that the BJP supports the YSR Congress, which is led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The BJP administration at the federal level was providing help to Andhra Pradesh, just like it does for any other state, she added, without attaching any conditions to it.
Purandeshwari urged that the state government make the details of the federal government’s assistance to the state public, accusing the Jagan administration of rebranding federal government programmes as its own.
“The state government is claiming it as its own assistance under the Rythu Bharosa scheme, even though the Centre is providing financial assistance of Rs. 6,000 per farmer annually under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi,” she noted.
She wanted to know what had become of Jagan’s pledge to provide each farmer 12,500 as investment assistance.
According to Purandeswari, the Centre gave the state 20,000 crore to build homes over a nine-year period. Even though 65% of the dwellings should have been finished by now, just 35% of the work has been finished. “The Jagan government should explain where the funds released by the Centre under various schemes have gone,” she said.
She also attributed the delay in the Polavaram project’s completion to the YSRCP administration. She advised leaving the job to the Centre, which is sponsoring the project, if the state government is unable to finish it.
The state’s law and order situation, as well as the status of its roadways, were allegedly both very terrible, according to the BJP state president. While individuals who have previously established businesses in the state are going to other states, she said that the state has not been attracting any investors.
It was unable to contact the YSRCP leaders for comment on Purandeswari’s claims.