DNA Edit: NDA fall-out

Evidently, for the past few months, the BJP has been having troubles maintaining cordial ties with its allies. Back in January, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray declared that he will not be contesting the state assembly and general elections lined up in 2019 in alliance with the BJP.

Now, it is dissent from South that the BJP is facing with the TDP parting ways with the BJP-led NDA alliance. Two union ministers from the TDP camp have resigned from PM Modi’s cabinet. Not one to be snubbed, BJP ministers in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet have also quit in a political tit-for-tat.

At the heart of this crisis is the seemingly irresolvable row of whether a special category status can actually be accorded to the state. If the BJP does not concede to the demands of the TDP, it will open up the playing field to the Congress, a party that has no little political clout left in the state.

However, the Congress has shown itself to be a scrapper and with Congress President Rahul Gandhi promising special status categorization to the state, BJP stands to lose not just its political currency but also its appeal with the people of the state.

Meanwhile, AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is steering a meteoric rise in his popularity after he delivered an impassioned speech playing obviously to the voters’ gallery. In his monologue, he stressed on how he and the state have been victims of the Centre’s injustice.

What really hit home was his comment that despite his political experience of close to 20 years, he had to visit New Delhi 29 times to chalk out a blueprint for the state’s development only to be snubbed repeatedly. Whether these claims are veracious or not is anyone’s guess, however, what is undisputed is that the state of AP has suffered.

Even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said as much. To be fair, the FM has made amends as well and has offered to allocate the “monetary equivalent” of what AP would have received under the special category status.

However, the TDP is far from being placated as the damage is one that can’t be done away by throwing money at it. The state that is keen on getting back on track after the rough deal it received during the bifurcation of the state in 2014. With Hyderabad going to Telangana, the state has lost a lion’s share of its revenue. Its service sector has been badly hit as insufficient urbanisation in the state continues to repel prospective investors.

Additionally, AP had to give up on a major share of its resources and infrastructural capital post the split. If the state succeeds in attaining its demands from the centre, it will secure a five-year support from the BJP government to bring its infrastructural capacities to a respectable level.

The state leadership has claimed that AP was allocated only 46 per cent of the revenues that were to accrue to it despite the fact that a whopping 58 per cent of the population of the un-bifurcated state settled within AP’s boundaries. This, the TDP leaders claim, has led to a situation in which AP has the lowest per capita income, and consequently high borrowing costs.