Budget: CBN’s Perfect Checkmate To Jagan @ Perfect Time!

Chandrababu Naidu has worked his magic over the Union Budget. For the first time in five years, Andhra Pradesh-specific allocations appeared in the Budget tabled in the Parliament.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 15000 Crore in Financial Assistance for Amaravati, funds for the Polavaram Project, the Vishakapatnam – Chennai Industrial Corridor, and a Special Package for All Rayalaseema Districts, Prakasam, and all Uttarandhra Districts for Andhra Pradesh.

After TDP parted ways with the BJP, AP-specific allocations Completely disappeared.

Later, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was focused only on loans and slowing down his disproportionate assets cases and YS Vivekananda Reddy’s Murder case.

Besides the sensational victory in the Assembly elections, fortune also smiled on Chandrababu Naidu with the BJP and the NDA falling short of the majority mark in the Parliament.

Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Nitish Kumar’s JDU seats are important for the Central Government. It was a perfect occasion for Naidu to squeeze more cabinet berths in Modi’s team.

However, Naidu contained with just one cabinet and one MoS, which is the same as in 2014 when Modi did not need his support. Later there were speculations in the Media that Naidu would be seeking the Speaker post to control the BJP politically in the case of Horse Trading.

But Naidu compromised with that as well. His sole demand for the support were extensive support to the state and that has been reflected in the Budget now.

Naidu also scored a big political goal as the Budget came at the time when Jagan Mohan Reddy was doing a Dharna in the National Capital.

Jagan will be complaining about Naidu when the National Capital will be discussing about how the Chief Minister squeezed funds for the state like no other CM and how he prioritized the state interests over political gains like Cabinet Berths, Speaker Post, etc.

This is called a Perfect Checkmate at a Perfect Time.