At a time when there is a general perception that YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is enjoying a very cordial relationship with the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the budget came as a big shock for the state.
In fact, the Centre appeared to be very generous towards the Jagan government in the last few weeks.
It not only released pending funds due to the state to the tune of over Rs 5,000 crore, besides approving the revised estimates of the Polavaram project cost to the extent of Rs 56,000 crore.
But in the annual budget, the Centre had given virtual peanuts to the state. Except Rs 13 crore to the central varsity and Rs 8 crore for tribal varsity, no other institution has been allocated any funds.
Forget special category status, no special incentives have been given to any industries or backwards areas of the state.
There was no mention of petroleum corridor, Dugarajapatnam port or Chennai-Vizag industrial corridor etc in the budget. There was no mention of even metro rails for Vijayawada or Visakhapatnam.
Now, it is a sort of moral setback to the Jagan government. The opposition Telugu Desam Party will definitely question as to what Jagan had achieved despite having 22 Lok Sabha members and by moving closely with Modi.
The YSRC tried to give an impression that it is not closer to the NDA. YSRC parliamentary party leader V Vijayasai Reddy sought to put up a tough posture by expressing protest over lack of adequate allocations to the state.
He said there was no mention regarding the special status to AP in the budget and no efforts to implement the promises made in AP Reorganisation Act. He alleged that the central government had not kept its promises.
He made it clear that the YSRC was ready to fight with the centre to safeguard the interest of AP and would question the injustice that happened to the state the Parliament.