Winners or not, we will serve as third alternative in Andhra Pradesh, says JBNP chief

JBNP offers a third alternative for Andhra Pradesh, focusing on wealth creation and clean governance.

Whether we win or lose in the coming General and Assembly elections, Jai Bharat National Party (JBNP) will serve as the third alternative to the people of Andhra Pradesh, said former joint director of CBI V.V. Lakshminarayana, popular as ‘JD’ Lakshminarayana.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Thursday, the founder of the JBNP said that all political parties have deceived the State. When the State was bifurcated, both Congress and BJP spoke about according Special Category Status to the State. In fact, the BJP included it in its 2014 election manifesto. All the parties later took a U-turn and forgot about it, he said.

Mr. Lakshminarayana said that the State had gone backward post-bifurcation because the SCS was not accorded to it; there was no investment and hence no employment generation.

Both TDP and the YSRCP spoke about getting it, but none could achieve it, he said.

“Mr. Jagan, in 2019, asked the electorate to give him 25 MPs and that he would get the SCS. The people gave him 22, but he failed at it. So did the TDP,” he said.

Both political parties failed to bargain hard for the promises made in the bifurcation bill and to stop the privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

In fact, they had four good opportunities: the passage of the CAA Bill, the Presidential election, the election of the Vice President, and the passage of the Delhi Government Civil Servants Appointment. During all four times, both TDP and YSRCP could have bargained hard with the NDA government at the Centre, as without their consent, the bills would not have been passed. But they just toed the line of the NDA, said Mr. Lakshminarayana.