A row erupted in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Monday over the Kia Motors car manufacturing plant in penukonda in Anantapur district.
Spread over 536 acres, Kia’s plant has been set up with an investment of over a billion US dollars. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) frequently cites this as one of its major success stories.
Speaking in the Assembly on Tuesday, Leader of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu said, "As Chief Minister, I went to South Korea and convinced Kia motors and brought them here. We set up a South Korean township in Anantapur district."
"Wherever I travelled across the world, I travelled only with the state's interest at heart," he added.
In his response, state Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranadh hit back and said that no investment had come out of Chandrababu Naidu's travels across the world.
Rajendranadh also pulled out a letter written by Kia CEO & President Han-Woo Park to Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on June 13, 2019 and read it out in the Assembly.
"On behalf of Kia Motors, I would like to take this opportunity to offer my warm congratulations on your recent win in the 2019 State Assembly elections Your victory is a clear indication of the immense faith and trust that the people of Andhra Pradesh have in you," the letter states.
The letter goes on to add that Jagan's win reminded the Kia CEO of 2007, "when I was leading the establishment of the Hyundai Motor RAD Centre, Hyundai Motor India Engineering, in Hyderabad. At that time, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, your late father and then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who requested me to invest in an automobile factory in the state."
"I promised him we would do so if the Hyundai Motor Group were to have any additional investment plans in India. I firmly believe that our long standing relationship played an important role in the decision by Kia Motors, a member of the Hyundai Motor Group, to locate its first India plant in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile I have complete faith your business expertise and social awareness will contribute to accelerating economic and social development in the region, thereby honouring the legacy of your late father," the letter adds.