Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party had disowned the statement of the party senior leader Kavuri Sambasiva Rao that the graph of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was falling. Kavuri had made this statement during the visit of BJP national president Amit Shah on May 25 and had requested the party to break the alliance. He had even briefed Amit Shah in one-to-one meeting and emphasised the need to move out of TDP and build BJP in the State.

The BJP State secretary Jammula Shyam Kishore announced that the statement of Kavuri Sambasiva Rao was his own and the BJP is not ready to subscribe to it. He said that as a leader of the party, Sambasiva Rao had expressed his views on the alliance with the TDP and also on the possibilities of strengthening the BJP in the State. However, he said that the BJP, as a party, would not support the views expressed by Sambasiva Rao that the graph of the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu was falling.

He further said that several leaders have met Amit Shah and gave their own views on the party and its future in the State. He said it was all left to the party national leadership to decide on the alliance for the next elections scheduled to be held in 2019.

Though the BJP leadership had disowned the statement of Sambasiva Rao and many others that the party should distance from the TDP before the next elections, these leaders have intensified the lobbying to break the alliance. These leaders feel that expansion of BJP in Andhra Pradesh is possible only if the party distanced from the TDP. It is to be seen how the BJP national leadership would react and help the party’s growth in the State.