Andhra Pradesh BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday for the first time after taking charge of the party's state unit.
Kanna submitted a letter to Modi and requested him to implement the pending assurances made during bifurcation to Andhra Pradesh. Kanna is also scheduled to meet BJP national president Amit Shah on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Kanna said, "I have come to formally meet PM Modi who wanted me to convey that he was with the people of Andhra Pradesh. I have also requested the PM to approve metro rail projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, enhance funds to backward districts from Rs 50 crore per district to Rs 150 crore, give GST incentive to the seven backward districts and announce special industrial corridors in four Rayalaseema districts."
Meanwhile, the state unit of the BJP also said that it would not ally with YSRCP or actor-politician Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena party during the 2019 elections.
“The BJP will fight the 2019 elections on its own and emerge as a formidable force in Andhra Pradesh by highlighting the welfare schemes introduced by the NDA government,” BJP State General Secretary S Suresh Reddy told reporters in Ongole.
As the letter submitted to PM Modi had a list of 12 demands, Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh, who is also the son of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, took to Twitter to slam the BJP.
This is the letter given to @narendramodi ji by APBJP President. Just wondering, if BJP claims that it fulfilled 90% promises, then why is the list as tall as Qutub Minar & why does it not mention #SpecialStatus? They shud stop false propaganda & fulfill all promises made to AP pic.twitter.com/8Plu73lRdK
— Lokesh Nara (@naralokesh) June 12, 2018
Tweeting out a copy of the letter, Lokesh said, “This is the letter given to Narendra Modi ji by AP BJP President. Just wondering, if BJP claims that it fulfilled 90% of promises made during bifurcation, then why is the list as tall as the Qutub Minar and why does it not mention Special Category Status (SCS)? They should stop false propaganda and fulfil all promises made to AP.”