TDP Brought 53 Companies; YCP Drove Away 27

AP cabinet minister Nara Lokesh accused the previous YCP government of failing to bring a single IT company to the state and further damaging Andhra Pradesh’s credibility during its five-year rule.

Speaking at the assembly today, Lokesh questioned whether Jagan or the former IT Minister Gudivada Amarnath had met with any industrialists or secured any investments in the past five years. He also took a jibe at Amarnath’s infamous “Kodi Guddu” theory.

Lokesh remarked that while TDP made deals with 53 companies during its rule from 2014-2019, 27 of those companies moved to neighboring states when YCP came into power.

He said that companies like Voltas, Micromax, GM Modular, and Amara Raja Batteries left for other states due to the harassing governance of YCP.

Citing an example of how YCP drove companies out of the state, Lokesh said, “Tata Group’s Voltas, which came forward to invest Rs. 1200 crores in the state, requested the government to allocate seven acres of adjacent land as there was some pipeline being laid in the land allocated to them. As the government denied permission, it moved to Tamil Nadu. Voltas’ investment would have created 2000 jobs.”

He said that YCP managed to threaten and harass an international company like TCL too. He added that many companies like Apple, Pegatron, and Foxconn moved to states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.

Lokesh remarked that once NDA came back into power in Andhra Pradesh, industries are coming forward in large numbers to invest in the state. He asserted that what the previous government failed to achieve in terms of investments and job creation over five years, the current government accomplished in a single cabinet meeting.