Ally trouble for Modi? Upset over Budget, TDP summons emergency party meet

The BJP ally is reportedly angry over a "raw deal" meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget.

Amravati: Hours after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018, Telegu Desam Party (TDP) leaders called for an emergency meeting on Sunday, February 4. 

The TDP, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is reportedly angry over a "raw deal" meted out to Andhra Pradesh in the budget. 

The party wants the Centre to "realise" about "strong displeasure", a senior party leader said.

TDP will discuss their next course of action in the meeting.

Last week, state chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday hinted at a rift between TDP and BJP.  "If the BJP does not want to continue alliance then the TDP will on its own," he had said.

A couple of MPs reportedly suggested that they would quit their posts in protest but Naidu assured them everything would be fine and issues will be discussed at the TDP Parliamentary Party meeting on Sunday.

"Jaitley seems to have completely forgotten AP while presenting the Budget though we have given him a detailed report on the funds due from the Centre to the state," Agriculture Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said after the meeting with the Chief Minister.

"We are very much pained that the Centre turned a blind eye whereas AP should have been looked at specially. We will let the Centre realise our displeasure. We will have no objection if it responds favourably. But if it continues to behave the same way it has been doing over the (past four) years...It is not justified," Somireddy noted.

With agency inputs