Chittoor, June 8: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister(CM) Chandrababu Naidu, after breaking the ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government of eyeing one of the most popular and rich temples of the country - Tirumala Tirupati. Naidu, while addressing the crowd in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, said that the Centre was trying to hijack the powers of the state government. He said that the Modi government wanted to manage affairs at the highly-revered temple, but it is he who didn't let them succeed.

"We will not let any conspiracy against the Tirumala temple be successful. The Centre tried to take the temple under their control. We will not let such conspiracies turn into reality. I survived an extremist attack in 2003 only because of Lord Balaji`s blessings. I won't let the sanctity of the temple of Lord Balaji tampered," he said, according to ANI.

The Chandrababu-led Telegu Desam Party(TDP) broke ties with BJP government earlier this year. Naidu pointed out that the NDA has betrayed the people of Andhra. Naidu demanded a special category status for his newly formed state of Andhra Pradesh, after being separated from Telangana. But, in return, no separate funds were allocated and the demand of special status was not fulfilled by the central government. Hence, unhappy over the move, TDP decided to leave the NDA.

After parting ways with the NDA government, Naidu was seen uniting with opponents like the Congress and other parties. He also attended the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy held recently in Bengaluru at Vidhan Soudha.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 08, 2018 01:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).