Has Telugu Desam Party MP and former Union minister Y S Chowdary alias Sujana Chowdary decided to join the Bharatiya Janata Party?
The answer seems to be yes, if one were to go by the indications given by Sujana Chowdary himself in an interview to a Telugu television channel on Monday.
“I have not taken any such decision to join the BJP. But it is not going to be a secret, if I take such a decision. I will openly tell my party boss N Chandrababu Naidu and also the media, before leaving the TDP,” Chowdary said.
He said there were many reasons for the defeat of the TDP in the recent elections.
“First reason is there is no connect between the leadership and the party cadre. All the decision-making was centralised and nobody could tell the party president what to and what not to do,” he said.
Secondly, Chowdary admitted that the U-turn taken by Naidu on the special category status also resulted in the people losing faith in the TDP.
“I had told him several times to forget the special category status, but stick to the special financial package given by the Centre. Even now, the special status cannot be given under any circumstances, but Naidu made it a big issue,” he said.
The former Union minister also said Naidu should have accepted the special purpose vehicle offered by the Centre to raise funds.
“It would have fetched the state Rs 16,000 crore which could have been utilised on any work. But for strange reasons, the former chief minister rejected it, which was what the BJP wanted,” he said.
And he also found fault with Naidu for coming out of the NDA and snapping ties with the BJP.
“I told him let us confine ourselves to quitting the cabinet if want to protest on the special status, but let us continue in the NDA as an alliance partner, but he did not listen. He went to the extent of moving a no-confidence motion against the Centre,” he said.
Chowdary also went to the extent of saying that the TDP could come to power in 2014 due to the support of the BJP and also Pawan Kalyan.
“Of course, the TDP had its own cadre strength,” he said.