The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) will fight together the elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly in Andhra Pradesh in 2024, BJP State president Somu Veerraju has said.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, Mr. Veerraju said despite the leaders from both the parties making it clear on several occasions, doubts were being aired over the alliance time and again.
JSP president Pawan Kalyan himself had clarified on the tie-up with the BJP while launching his campaign in the State from his vehicle, ‘Varahi’, he pointed out.
He expressed the confidence that the BJP-JSP combine would come to power in 2024 by highlighting the welfare and development initiatives taken up by the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre in a big way to benefit the fledgling State.
Like-minded parties could join hands with the BJP-JSP combine, he said in reply to a question.
Thanks to the series of policy initiatives taken up by the BJP-led government at the Centre, India was now the fifth largest economy in the world, he said.
He demanded that the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government come out with a White Paper on the steps taken by it to spur industrial growth in the State.
Accusing the Jagan Mohan Reddy Government of diverting the Central funds allotted to the State under various heads, Mr. Veerraju said big-ticket projects, including the Kakinada petroleum complex and three industrial corridors passing through the State, had made little progress as the State government failed to acquire land for the purpose.
‘Villages remained underdeveloped’
The villages in the State remained underdeveloped as over ₹1,300 crore earmarked by the Centre for their welfare and development was not reaching them. The party would fight for the rights of the funds-starved sarpanches and improvement of civic amenities in villages, he asserted.
Maintaining that fine quality rice could be made available to the people of the State at ₹38 per kg, he alleged that the ruling YSRCP had indulged in rampant corruption by colluding with erring millers.
The BJP would launch a series of agitations against the ‘‘anti-people’‘ policies of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the days to come, he added.
