The TDP, which moved the no-confidence motion in the Parliament, led the charge against the NDA government in the Lok Sabha on Friday. The voting will take place at the end of the day and will be preceded by a 7-hour long debate.
Before the debate began, Srinivas Kesineni of the TDP, who had moved the no-confidence motion, requested Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to allow TDP MP from Guntur Jayadev Galla to initiate the debate.
Beginning his speech, Jayadev, who is also Amaron Batteries owner, stated that the no-confidence motion was moved against the Narendra Modi government due to a lack of fairness, lack of trust, lack of priority and the lack of an unbiased approach towards Andhra Pradesh. TDP has been demanding special category status for Andhra.
“The saga of Andhra Pradesh during this Modi-Shah regime is a saga of empty promises. This is not a war between the TDP and the BJP. It is a fight between morality and majority, between the Modi regime and the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a dharmayudha,” Jayadev said in the Lok Sabha.
Jayadev warned that BJP will be decimated in Andhra Pradesh in the 2019 elections like the Congress was if the people of the state are deceived, adding: “It is not a threat, Mr PM, it is a shraap (curse).”
“Mr Modi, while campaigning in Andhra Pradesh, had said: 'Congress killed the mother and saved the child. Had I have been there, I would have saved the mother too’. The people of Andhra Pradesh have waited for four long years for him to save their mother,” the TDP MP added.
“During the bifurcation, many assets went to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was reduced to an agrarian state,” Jayadev said, attacking both the Congress and the BJP for neglecting the state.
He attacked the Central government saying that statues (the Sardar Patel statue in Gujarat and the Shivaji statue in Maharashtra) are getting more funds than the state of Andhra Pradesh is receiving.
The TDP MP went on to state that Andhra Pradesh was considered financially better off than other Indian states so was not given special status. When Jayadev stated that Telangana was given a preference over Andhra Pradesh, members of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) voiced a strong protest in the House.
“The BJP is deceiving us and colluding with rival parties in Andhra Pradesh. YSRCP MPs are on the guest list and the TDP on the blacklist,” Jayadev added.
The no-confidence motion against the government was moved by the TDP on the first day of the budget session. The party has been demanding a floor test since the last session of Parliament, protesting the refusal on part of the Centre to grant a special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
The main opposition, Congress, has been given 38 minutes to speak, while the AIADMK has been given 29 minutes. Trinamool Congress has been allocated 27 minutes, Biju Janata Dal will have 15 minutes to speak and Telangana Rashtra Samithi has been allocated 9 minutes. The BJP will get to speak for 3 hours and 33 minutes to speak in the 7-hour long debate.
The government, which has numbers on its side, is likely to win the trust vote. However, Opposition parties are considering this as an opportunity to target the government over various issues.