BJP State president Somu Veerraju on Tuesday said that “family parties” had ruined development in the State.
In a veiled reference to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), Mr. Veerraju said development had come to a grinding halt in Andhra Pradesh.
He was addressing the BJP Coastal Andhra and Godavari Zone office-bearers’ meeting, where party leaders paid rich tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occasion of his fourth death anniversary.
Listing the schemes launched by the Central government during the terms of Vajpayee and now under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the State governments had been taking the credit for them.
Mid-day meal, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, rural and urban health missions, roads and infrastructure development were a few to mention, he said.
The governments in the State were making some changes to these schemes and programmes and taking credit for them, he said. “For instance, Nadu-Nedu is nothing but SSA,” he claimed.
The previous and the current governments failed to develop Amaravati as the capital of the State, he alleged. The Central government had so far given ₹7,500 crore for the development of Amaravati, which was also declared a Smart City. “The money has been squandered away by the successive governments,” he alleged.
Mr. Veerraju said that the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha was organising Yuva Sangharshana Yatra across the State to highlight the failures of the State government.
As a part of it, a public meeting would be conducted in Vijayawada on August 21. Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur and others would address the meeting, he said.
BJP State general secretary Vishnuvardhan Reddy was present.
