With Praise For Telangana's Chief Minister, PM Modi Twists Andhra Knife

PM Modi said that the TDP had used parliament to deal with his "domestic problems".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday criticised his former ally, Telugu Desam Party, or TDP, chief N Chandrababu Naidu for bringing the no-trust motion in parliament to score political points with rival party YSR Congress back home and revealed that he had asked the Andhra Pradesh chief minister against falling into the trap when they had last spoken on the demand for special category status for his state.

But the darts that he flung at the TDP hurt a lot more when he went on to compare Andhra's performance with Telangana and showered praises at K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, TRS, chief for his focus on developing his state rather than indulging in politicking like Andhra's TDP.

"The TRS showed maturity," PM Modi said about the party that is seen to have built bridges with the BJP. Union Minister Ananth Kumar said the BJP had reached out to non-NDA parties such as the TRS to persuade them to stay away from voting in the no-trust vote. TRS lawmakers did not vote.

"It is unbecoming of a person holding the position of the Prime Minister to say such things," Mr Naidu said, accusing the prime minister of doing injustice to the state for political mileage and resorting to blackmail.

"His arrogance was because he had the numbers," said Mr Naidu while describing the no-confidence motion as a fight between majority and morality.

Ahead of the vote, Mr Naidu had declared that promoting his state's interest was all that he cared for.

"Those who are with me in this fight are my friends and rest are my foes," Mr Naidu tweeted,

In his speech, PM Modi had revealed that when the TDP decided to walk out of the NDA, he had warned Mr Naidu that his party was "getting entangled in a race of one-upmanship with the YSR Congress".

"I told the chief minister that you are doing this just because of your internal politics with the YSR Congress," PM Modi said, adding that the TDP had used parliament to deal with his "domestic problems".

It was a state-wide campaign run by the YSR Congress against the TDP for failing to negotiate the special category status for Andhra Pradesh that is widely seen to have provoked the TDP to step up pressure on the centre, and finally exit the national alliance.

But Mr Naidu had long suspected that it was the BJP that had been blatantly "promoting" Jaganmohan Reddy and his party, the YSR Congress, which left him with no option but to end the partnership.

Notwithstanding the defeat of the TDP-sponsored trust vote, Mr Naidu said it was for the first time that a no-confidence motion initiated by a regional party had been taken up in the Lok Sabha. The chief minister is headed to the national capital to thank all parties who supported the motion.