‘There is no rift BJP and TDP’, says MLA Vishnu Kumar Raju

Sunday, January 28, 2018 
Visakhapatnam

BJP Floor leader P.Vishnu Kumar Raju said today that there was no rift between the BJP and the TDP.

He said that the comments he made were distorted by a section of media. The clarification came after the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu took severe exception to his statements and went to the extent of saying that the BJP was free to call off the alliance even while asserting that he was committed to the coalition dharma. Vishnu Kumar Raju said that whatever he said on January 24 was made in his personal capacity and the BJP had nothing to do with it.

It may be recalled that the comments on Pattiseema and making MLAs who had defected from the YSRCP Ministers in the presence of the leaders of YSRCP created a political storm. He added that he never criticized the Chief Minister or the TDP on the project.

On the defected MLAs issue, he said ‘After the meeting with PAC, I was talking to the media in the Assembly lobby on the outcome. After the security officer objected to it, Rajendranath Reddy invited us to his room. It was then a reporter sought my personal opinion on the issue. In my personal capacity, I said that it was not morally correct.

Meanwhile, BJP MLC Somu Veerraju reiterated at the ‘Polling booth level sammelan of the party at Peda Merangi village in Jiyyammavalasa mandal that the State was being developed with the Central grants and with the active cooperation of the Prime Minister. Chief Minister had threatened to move Supreme court, if necessary, on the Centre’s assurances to the State. It was a violation of ‘Mitra dhamra’, he said.