Fighting dharma yuddh against Centre: Naidu

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said on Friday that he was fighting a "dharma yuddh" to secure the state's 'legitimate' rights and parties at national level were backing TDP's no- confidence motion against the NDA government due to his party's credibility.

Speaking to reporters here hours after the TDP quit the BJP-led NDA and moved the notice for the motion in the Lok Sabha, Naidu said he would now go ahead and bring various parties at the national level together. The TDP supremo said he had not contacted any party yet but given the "TDP's credibility" they were supporting the no-trust motion.

"We are fighting a dharma yuddham against the Centre to secure our state s legitimate rights. TDP has a credibility at the national level, so many parties are coming forward to support us. I will soon speak to those who are ready to support us," he said. Naidu said he was now free to talk with any party which he could not do while being a partner of the ruling alliance at the Centre.

"I now have no obligations and I will go ahead by bringing various parties at the national level together," he added.

The TDP, which had recently pulled out its ministers from the Modi government, on Friday morning decided to quit the NDA. The party later moved a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha against the Modi government demanding that the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 be implemented in toto and also the promises made by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Rajya Sabha be honoured. "We came out of the NDA because of moral values. Only then we moved a no-confidence motion. Those who don't have any moral values were making rounds of the Prime Minister's Office," Chandrababu said, in an obvious reference to the YSR Congress that also moved a no-trust motion.

The TDP decided to move the motion on its own rather than support the one moved by a party that "did not have any moral values", he said.

Earlier, speaking in the state Legislative Council on a short discussion on implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act, the Chief Minister explained the reasons for the TDP exiting the NDA. "We joined the NDA in the first place only to protect our state s interests in the aftermath of bifurcation. We waited for four years with the hope that the Centre will honour all the promises but it only meted out injustice to us, Naidu said.

However, the BJP never cared about TDP, he charged adding while in the opposition, it promised to take care of the state and its needs but once in power, "it completely ignored us." Coming down on the Prime Minister, he said Modi did not even bother to invite the TDP MPs for a discussion when they were agitating in Parliament for the state s rights.

He said Modi showed a lot of concern for AP on the eve of 2014 elections and promised many things, including building the state s new capital better than New Delhi.

The chief minister wanted to know what happened to all those promises. "Why was the Centre not co-operating in building Amaravati?" he asked.

The TDP supremo charged both YSR Congress and the Jana Sena, the main rivals for TDP in the state, with colluding with the BJP. "Whose interests are they seeking to protect, he questioned angrily and found fault with the Prime Minister for trying to enact "a Tamil Nadu-type drama in Andhra as well." "O Pannerselvam himself said he agreed to accept the deputy chief minister post at the behest of Narendra Modi.

The Council later adopted a resolution demanding that the Centre implement all provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act and also the promises made in Rajya Sabha.