Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu bats for simultaneous elections

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu bats for simultaneous elections. One Nation, One Election needed to focus on development, he avers. Centre exploring options to stop privatisation of Vizag steel plant; he says. The Chief Minister lauds BJP leadership for scoring a hat-trick win in Haryana and garnering a higher vote share than the NC in Jammu & Kashmir.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has stressed the need to have simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies (One Nation, One Election) in order to focus on development.

Addressing the media at his residence near the city on October 9 (Wednesday), Mr. Naidu appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda and other leaders for leading the BJP to a historic win in the Haryana Assembly election and for garnering a higher vote share than that of the National Conference (NC) in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).

Mr. Naidu said the BJP won 29 seats in the J&K election with a vote share of 25.64% compared to the NC’s 23.43% (though the latter was poised to form the government with a tally of 42 seats) as the people believed in Mr. Modi’s leadership and the measures taken by the NDA Government brought normalcy back to the strife-torn valley.

In Haryana, the BJP proved the sceptics wrong by scoring a hat-trick victory. All this was possible due to the good governance delivered by the BJP-led NDA Government for over a decade, Mr. Modi’s leadership, and the concerted efforts made by the party’s rank and file. In fact, Mr. Modi had demonstrated how a judicious mix of welfare, development and good governance could win the people’s confidence, Mr. Naidu said.

The Chief Minister said the Central government was doing its best to help Andhra Pradesh overcome the problems being faced by it since bifurcation, and that the State would be a major beneficiary of the investments committed by the Centre in the infrastructure sector. Already, a highway network, with investments of about ₹55,000 crore, was in progress. It was poised to be completed in two-and-a-half years.

The Centre was exploring all possible alternatives to stop privatising the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), and it infused a fund of ₹500 crore on October 8 to put it back on the track, besides paying around ₹1,100 crore to banks, he said.

The BPCL was looking at Bhavanapadu, Machilipatnam, Ramayapatnam and Krishnapatnam as possible locations for the establishment of a refinery, Mr. Naidu said, hoping the project would come up at one of these places.