Andhra Pradesh chief-minister Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is an important ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre and is one of the prominent parties comprising the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

TDP has 15 MPs from Andhra Pradesh and a solitary MP from Telengana, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh a few years back.  Some weeks back, the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh blamed the BJP-led Centre of not showing keen interest in implementing welfare schemes for the State as promised by the Centre whole carving out Telengana from the erstwhile unified Andhra Pradesh.

The issue came to the fore after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the fiscal budget for 2018-19 in Parliament early last month.  Naidu openly blamed the Centre of neglecting Andhra Pradesh’s interests, indicating clearly that the Centre didn’t pay any heed to his request to accord a ‘special status’ to the State.  As it wasn’t happening, he later asked the Centre to allocate special funds to the State for its various people-centric welfare measures.

Naidu’s speech at a recent TDP meeting in Guntur, Naidu said “The Centre has done a gross injustice to the State.  We are proud to declare that we are ready to make any kind of sacrifice for the State’s welfare.  It is high time the Prime Minister and other Union Ministers mend themselves and rectify their past mistakes when it comes to meeting the State’s needs and welfare measures!”

Naidu’s speech-cum-warning message is seen by political observers as a clear indicator of the thaw in the relationship between the BJP and the TDP which might be severed at any time.