Hyderabad, March 8: After breaking ties with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Centre, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that ministers belonging to TDP in central and state cabinet have resigned. The ties between allies- TDP and BJP reached its peak after Naidu’s failed bid to secure special category status for Andhra Pradesh.

While addressing the state assembly today, Naidu thanked TDP ministers for their services and said that these ministers worked good in the state and brought considerable reforms in their departments. He said he tried reaching out to the Prime Minister to inform him about our decision but sadly, he was unavailable.

Lauding about the work done by TDP, Naidu said, “We brought a mechanism to check the health of pregnant women & newborn babies. We decided to supply sanitary pads at half the price. Soon this will be brought into implementation”. Naidu said the Centre is holding hands of North Eastern states but not Andhra Pradesh. “The Centre has been taking one-sided decisions and our patience has run out now. When the purpose of joining the union cabinet hasn’t been fulfilled, it’s best to resign now”, Naidu had tweeted.

“What Arun Jaitley spoke yesterday is not good. You are holding hand of the North Eastern states but not Andhra Pradesh. You are giving industrial incentives to them, not to Andhra Pradesh. Why this discrimination?”, Naidu questioned. Arun Jaitley, on Wednesday, had said that "political turmoil" will not compel him to increase monetary allocation for Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, TDP’s Jayadev Galla said other parties who are sympathetic to their cause have also started protesting on various issues but in support of us. Ram Mohan Naidu, TDP MP from Andhra Pradesh said it's the decision the party took after Arun Jaitley's statement on Wednesday. “When we're asking for our right it can't be rejected. The alliance is still under negotiation. We don't want to make it a political fight between TDP-BJP but a fight for the state”, he added.

PVN Madhav, BJP MLC said, “Decided that our ministers will resign from TDP Cabinet. We will be going to the people & telling them all the things Centre has done for the state. Since independence till date, no state has received as many favours as that were given to Andhra Pradesh.

On Wednesday, Naidu had confirmed that two TDP leaders at the central government - Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and MoS, Technology and Earth Sciences, Y S Chowdary will submit their resignations on Thursday. While addressing media in Vijayawada on Wednesday, Naidu said, “The remarks of the Finance Minister showed as if we were asking too much. But that is not the case. Andhra has suffered ever since the bifurcation of the state in 2014. The reaction of the FM to our demand is disappointing”.

"We joined hands with PM Modi with the hope that our only core demand would be addressed. As an alliance partner, we never created any unruly pressure on the government. After waiting patiently for years, we had to take this unprecedented step," Naidu added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 08, 2018 12:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).