BJP AP President Somu Veerraju talks with a lot of confidence about their party coming to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2024. He says their party has a track record of making impossible possible in different states in the country. Veerraju says with greater confidence that it is only under the BJP that AP can have a bright future with expected development. But for reasons unknown, he gets angry and agitated at the very mention of Special Category Status.

So, Veerraju lost no time to hit back when TDP leader Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary made just a light hearted comment against the BJP and the YCP. Chowdary just said that Veerraju’s statement on Special Status and the YCP stand were creating confusion among the people. The BJP leader became very angry at this and made a counter statement against the TDP.

Veerraju straightaway attacked Chandrababu Naidu, saying that it was Naidu who agreed for a special package in place of the Special Category Status. Veerraju did not stop at that. He went on to say that Chandrababu Naidu accepted a ‘midnight package’ and thus became the reason for AP losing the Special Category Status.

Veerraju further told Butchaiah Chowdary that it was a fact that the Central funds that came under the ‘midnight package’ were shared between the TDP leaders. That did not help the people of the State in any way.

One thing that Veerraju and other leaders were forgetting was that the Special Category Status was a promise that was made on the floor of the Parliament at the time of passing the AP Reorganisation Act. Now, the BJP AP was suppressing all talk about Special Status but yet was aspiring to come to power in the State in 2024 polls.

Day by day, the political confusion is deepening in Andhra Pradesh. Average common man is perplexed and confused as to which parties are allies and which are enemies. The ruling YCP totally targets the TDP but does not speak a word against the BJP. Even the main Opposition TDP does not criticise the BJP much. Whereas, the BJP fully targets the main Opposition while partially and selectively criticising the ruling YCP. The Jana Sena’s policy is not clearly known and its identity as an independent political party has become questionable ever since its hurried alliance with the BJP.
While the overall political situation is so volatile, BJP AP President Veerraju now says that CM Jaganmohan Reddy and Ex CM Chandrababu were co-robbers. Both the YCP and the TDP were causing harm to the State by pursuing their selfish political interests. Only the BJP would be able to give a better rule for the AP people.
Doubtless to say, the Modi Government is taking all the help of the YCP and the TDP MPs at the national level for passing its bills in the Parliament but it is not fulfilling Reorganisation promises like Special Status. The BJP got less than 1 per cent vote share in 2019 but still it is trying to dominate the AP political scene taking advantage of the YCP, TDP and Jana Sena weaknesses.

BJP AP President Somu Veerraju is taking all risks possible in order to embarrass the TDP and thereby to extend indirect support to the YCP. In the past few days, the TDP has been making non-stop allegations against the YCP on the Nandyal family joint suicide. The bitter most attack was that the TDP accused the Jagan regime of insulting the Muslim family by not giving a proper postmortem and respectable burial.

BJP state president Somu Veerraju on Friday expressed concern over the Andhra Pradesh government’s alleged failure to tackle the flood problem in the state and demanded the central government’s intervention in this regard.

In a letter to the central government, Andhra Pradesh BJP president noted that farmers have suffered huge losses and crops in lakhs of hectares were destroyed due to the flash floods. The state government has failed to pay compensation to the farmers who incurred heavy losses.

He appealed to the Union government to send an inter-ministerial team to assess the damage due to heavy rains and floods in Andhra Pradesh. He alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government had failed to take up adequate measures to minimise losses arising out of the recent floods.

He appealed that a central team should tour several flood-affected districts in Andhra Pradesh, interact with affected people and inquire about the relief operations. He said the central team should hold discussions with senior officials, villagers and farmers to obtain information on the nature and extent of damage caused by the floods.

A five-member team, led by Joint Secretary Praveen Vashista, is currently touring flood-hit districts in Telangana to assess the extent of damage caused by the torrential rains.

Meanwhile, Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday reviewed the flood situation in the state and enquired about relief measures and damage caused by floods and heavy rains. Minister Kanna Babu informed the Chief Minister that 40,000 hectares of paddy crop in East Godavari was completely damaged due to floods. He apprised the Chief Minister that the flash floods and heavy rainfall submerged crops in 1.07 lakh hectares across the state.

Earlier, Jagan had appealed to the central government to release Rs 1,000 crore as immediate relief. However, Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy had recently suggested that state governments should use funds from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

“It is the responsibility of the state governments to utilize the funds for providing immediate relief to the victims of natural disasters from the State Disaster Relief Fund. The Central Government contributes 75% of SDRF allocation for general category States/UTs and 25% will have to be borne by the state government,” Kishan Reddy had said.

After meeting Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan on Wednesday, BJP state president Somu Veerraju on Wednesday visited the Kanaka Durga Temple after the news that three silver lion statues went missing from the chariot of Goddess Kanaka Durga.

Somu Veerraju visited the famous temple in Vijayawada along with party leaders. Veerraju has enquired with the temple executive officer about the missing idols and expressed his anger over the alleged ‘negligence’ of the temple authorities. The temple officials informed the BJP leader that there is only one lion left on one of the four pillars of the chariot.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday stated that it has constituted a panel of revenue officials to look into the issue. Minister Vellampalli Srinivas also visited the temple to take stock of the situation at Kanaka Durga temple.

The chariot has four silver lion statues, of which these three are missing. Each statue is made up of eight kilos of silver. Security measures have been beefed up in Kanaka Durga temple after the silver statues went missing. Police are examining the silver chariot at the temple premises to check for any clues.

BJP leaders and Hindu organization activists are likely to intensify their agitation over what they call “increasing attacks on Hindu temples.”

Earlier, several BJP leaders were under house arrest over the century-old chariot burning incident in Antarvedi. Somu Veerraju was placed under house arrest when he had planned to visit the ancient temple in Antarvedi.
The Andhra Pradesh government had ordered a CBI probe into the incident after former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had demanded a probe by the premier investigating agency into the chariot fire and other incidents. The TDP president and BJP chief had earlier alleged that the YSRCP government was ignoring several incidents of attacks on Hindu temples.