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Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 26
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister-designate YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help with the state’s massive debt and invited him to his swearing in on May 30.
At a meeting he had with Prime Minister Modi—his first with the prime minister since his party swept Andhra's recent assembly elections—Reddy blamed the state’s large debt on his predecessor, caretaker Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, and promised a detailed review of each department and a White Paper.
Addressing the press after the meeting , he said the prime minister gave him a patient hearing.
He said he would not give up his demand for a special status for Andhra—a promise made in Parliament. He also said he regretted that the YSRCP did not command enough strength in Parliament to dictate terms—a position that could have been different had the BJP-led NDA failed to get the required numbers in the 17th Lok Sabha.
Reddy claimed Andhra’s former Congress government “foisted” criminal cases against him when he left the party, and that the Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party later pursued them.
Accusing rival Naidu of corruption, he claimed the caretaker chief minister and his supporters of “benefitting from land deals” made in connection with development plans for Andhra’s new capital Amravati. Asked if his government would scrap the project, he said it was a “catch-22 situation”.
During his stay, the CM-designate said he met BJP chief Amit Shah, whom he described as the second most powerful leader in the country after the prime minister.
Reddy's party stormed to power in the state, winning 151 of the state's 175-member assembly and reducing rival TDP to 23 seats.
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