Newly-appointed president of BJP Andhra Pradesh unit Somu Veerraju is known for his utter contempt towards TDP headed by former CM N Chandrababu Naidu. And he has never hidden his opinion towards the TDP chief.
On becoming the state BJP president, Veerraju gave the reasons why he had been so critical of Naidu.
“The main reason is that Naidu had never allowed the BJP to grow independently in Andhra Pradesh, before or after the bifurcation, though he and his party had got benefitted from the BJP,” he said.
He said though the TDP had won 16 MP seats in 1996, Naidu had not given the support to the BJP but instead played politics in the name of United Front.
“In 1998, we contested the Lok Sabha elections independently and won 18 percent votes. Later, Naidu had forged an alliance with the BJP in the post-Kargil war scenario and won the 1999 assembly elections,” he said.
In 2004, too, the TDP and the BJP fought the elections together, but when Naidu lost power in AP, he had blamed the BJP.
“Ten years later, he came back to the BJP fold realising that there was a Narendra Modi wave in the country. He gave 14 assembly seats to the BJP, but fielded rebels in several places. He even sent some of his close aides into the BJP and got them tickets,” Veerraju pointed out.
He alleged that Naidu, who had lost power in 2019, had made the BJP a complete zero in Andhra Pradesh.
“That is why, I dislike him. But that does not mean, I have any personal enmity with Chandrababu Naidu. I make criticism depending on the situation,” he said.
On whether there is a possibility of Naidu coming back into the BJP fold in 2024, the state BJP chief said he did not want to make any comment on that, as any alliance with the TDP would depend on the stand taken by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
