Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday accused the central government of being 'vengeful' and accused it of conducting raids by using the Income Tax Department to 'threaten' the state for demanding its rights. Naidu made the comments during his weekly teleconference with officials.
"They (the Centre) are attacking us when we are demanding our rights. They are threatening us by conducting Income Tax raids. This is not democratic spirit. One should compete in development and resolving people’s problems but it is not right to adopt a vengeful attitude," Naidu was quoted as saying.
Referring to Cyclone Titli which recently struck the northern part of the state, Naidu also said that the state was able to handle nature's fury but not able to bear the politics.
The Chief Minister also hit out at the Congress and the BJP, stating that while one party unjustly bifurcated the state, another was meting out injustice by refusing to cooperate with the state's requests and demands.
Naidu’s statement came after Income Tax Department officials on Sunday ended a two-day long search at the residences and offices of TDP MP C M Ramesh. The searches, which began at the premises in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Friday, concluded around Sunday noon.
For over 50 hours, the IT officials conducted searches at the premises including Ramesh's company Rithwik Projects in Hyderabad. Simultaneous searches were also conducted at his residences in Hyderabad and at Potladurti in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking to reporters, Ramesh alleged that the I-T raids were conducted at the instance of Narendra Modi government due to political vendetta.
The raids on Ramesh were the latest in a series of I-T raids on TDP leaders over the past week. Searches were conducted at the houses and offices of TDP leader and industrialist Beeda Masthan Rao in Andhra Pradesh on October 5.
Earlier, there were also reports of I-T raids on Narayana group of educational institutions run by TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Minister K. Narayana. He denied the reports.
I-T officials also raided the premises of former TDP leader Revanth Reddy in Hyderabad last week. Revanth, who was once a close aide of Naidu, is currently the Working President of Congress’ Telangana unit.
IANS inputs