Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in-charge for Andhra Pradesh affairs V. Muraleedharan has said the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has lost the confidence of the people in the State and that it has been decided at the recent meeting of the BJP leaders from the southern States held in Hyderabad to focus on Andhra Pradesdh to be better prepared for the 2024 elections.
Addressing the BJP State office-bearers’ meeting here on July 16 (Sunday), Mr. Muraleedharan said that a concerted effort needed to be made by the party to emerge as an alternative to the YSRCP.
He said that the YSRCP government, mired in corruption, had failed on all fronts. “People are, therefore, looking to teach the YSRCP a lesson in the coming elections and the BJP must seize this opportunity,” said Mr. Muraleedharan.
The Union Minister observed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid due attention to the development of Andhra Pradesh and extended ‘unprecedented financial assistance’ to the State to enable it to overcome the impact of bifurcation.
The Central government’s schemes that benefited the State should be duly highlighted in the run-up to the 2024 elections, he advised, suggesting that a roadmap should be prepared for each Assembly constituency to face the elections.
Delivering the inaugural address, BJP State president Daggubati Purandeswari said the party should intensify its campaign against the YSRCP government as the elections were only months away.
‘Debt piled up’
She called upon the leaders to ‘expose the failures’ of the YSRCP and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s unfulfilled promises. She alleged that the State’s debt piled up to a staggering ₹10 lakh crore and a negligible portion of it went into development schemes. Liquor and sand mafia were ruling the roost and law and order was on the verge of breaking down, alleged Ms. Purandeswari.
She said that not even a single industry came to Andhra Pradesh during the YSRCP tenure and on top of it, there has been a ‘flight of capital’ due to the government’s policies. “On the whole, the YSRCP government’s performance in the last four and a half years was dismal, to say the least,” she said.
BJP national joint general secretary Shiv Prakash, national executive committee members N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Somu Veerraju, MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, State party affairs co-in charge Sunil Deodhar and State general secretary S. Vishnuvardhan Reddy was among those present in the meeting.
