Chandrababu Naidu calls PM Modi a 'blackmailer'

Amaravati (AP), Dec 30: In his second attack on Narendra Modi in a week, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday dubbed the Prime Minister as a "blackmailer" who "threatens" everybody to make them fall in line.

Last Sunday, Naidu had termed the prime minister a "hollow man" who had "done nothing" for the country. Addressing a press conference here, Naidu also launched a scathing attack on Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for "conspiring" against Andhra Pradesh with the objective of stalling its growth.

"Modi is a blackmailer. He gets cases foisted (against someone) and later bails him out. He then blackmails that person. That's what he's doing," the chief minister alleged.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director himself had said that Modi got a case filed against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, he claimed. Modi also bailed out Telangana chief minister in a corruption case related to ESI Corporation, Naidu alleged. "Both Modi and KCR do not want AP to develop. So they want to destabilise me. Here (YSR Congress president) Jagan wants to win (power), so he is taking their support.

If it is not conspiracy, what's it," Naidu asked. KCR fears that his "hollowness" would be exposed if Andhra Pradesh gets developed, he said.

"The prime minister also fears that he will get exposed because he didn't do anything in the last five years. So, he is getting me abused by KCR," the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief alleged.

The chief minister asserted that Andhra Pradesh would definitely develop "if not today, tomorrow".

"Definitely, we will create wealth. We have a vision and we will work hard. But Modi and KCR don't like wealth creation," he added.

He also took a strong exception to the "language" used by KCR against him on Saturday.

"Decency is important in politics. Is it the language a person occupying the CM's position should be using (against his counterpart)? He is talking in an uncivilised tone," Naidu lamented.

On KCR offer to write a letter to the prime minister seeking grant of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, Naidu said it was a strategy. "May be he is preparing ground along with Jagan to come and work here. All of them want to finish off Chandrababu Naidu. This is what politics is," he said.

PTI