‘TDP Doesn’t Know Caste...’: Party Leader Nara Lokesh Over Granting Reservations To Muslim Community

Saying Telugu Desam Party (TDP) stands for Telugu state, the party’s general secretary Nara Lokesh emphasised that the party does not believe in caste, creed or religion.

Lokesh’s reaction came after a question was asked to him about whether the new Andhra Pradesh government will offer reservations for the Muslim community. He replied his party doesn’t know caste, creed or religion, and only represents the interests of the Telugu people.

“TDP has been clear from day one. TDP represents the interests of Telugu people. We don’t know caste, creed and religion. We stand only for Telugu people. We believe that the Telugu state should be a strong state,” he was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Lokesh, who is the son of Andhra Pradesh chief minister elect Chandrababu Naidu, said his party will maintain a “symbiotic relationship” with the Narendra Modi-led central government.

The party has offered unconditional support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Lokesh said his party joined NDA “unconditionally” before the Lok Sabha election. However, he reasoned that there should be a give-and-take in the relationship in case of any future investment opportunity.

“We joined NDA unconditionally before elections; we will continue to be in NDA unconditionally... We believe that he (Modi) should be the Prime Minister of India and there is no second thought about it,” said Lokesh.

He further said that if some opportunity for investment arises, the party would like Andhra to get and would expect Centre's push for it.

“We will definitely ask for it. It is about building a symbiotic relationship, representing the state’s interests, every state’s interest,” Lokesh said.

He further said there will be ”hundreds of things" where negotiation with the Centre would be required.

“There would be 100 things such as Agniveer, Uniform Civil Code, reservations, allocation of budgets, development and others which could be negotiated across a table,” Lokesh said.

Emphasizing on the concept of ‘one state, one capital’, Lokesh said Amaravati is the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, but highlighted that decentralised development will be done.

The TDP won the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections by winning 135 seats, with Chandrababu Naidu set to be the new chief minister of the state. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Lok Sabha election also saw a victory for the NDA alliance, with TDP winning 16 out of the 25 seats and BJP winning 3 seats.