"There will always be constraints but...": TDP's Nara Lokesh on demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) [India], June 7 (ANI): Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Nara Lokesh on Friday said that the party is looking forward to working with NDA and creating a very "conducive environment" where investments will come in Andhra Pradesh.
With regards to the special status for the state is concerned, he specifically mentioned that people of the state wanted a sort of special dispensation to be given to the state so that it can be rebuilt.
In an interview with ANI, the TDP leader said that his party's support to PM-designate Narendra Modi is "unconditional" and said that their focus is on creating 20 lakh jobs in the last in next five years.
"Our support is unconditional. As far as special status is concerned, we need to understand that the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was bifurcated against the majority view of the people of Andhra Pradesh. And one of the major reasons was the loss of Hyderabad. Hyderabad is the economic powerhouse and a lot of people depend on it. So they wanted sort of special dispensation to be given to the state so that we can rebuild. I understand that there will always be constraints, therefore we look forward to working together and creating a very conducive environment where investments will come into the state because one of the first promises we have made as part of the manifesto is to create 20 lakh jobs. We need to bring a lot of investments and we have to create a lot of jobs," Nara Lokesh told ANI in an interview.
He further asserted that the party will look forward to creating jobs both in the private and public sectors.
"We have to create jobs both in the private and public sectors. So I look forward to working with the NDA government to do this," he added.
Nara Lokesh further said that there is no place for arrogance and bad governance adding that the state government would focus on delivering corrupt free governance.
"It's too early to make assessments the reason is that the elections have just got done. The political parties that had 151 out of 175 seats were reduced to a mere 11 seats. So the writing is on the wall. There is no place for arrogance and bad governance. So it is very important to remain humble, and accessible to the people, leadership should be humble. A corrupt free governance we need to deliver," he added.
The BJP falls short of the 272-seat majority mark needed to form a government on its own. The balance of power within the government shifted in favour of the allies. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JDU, having won 16 and 12 seats respectively in their respective states, have extended support to the NDA.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in alliance with Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena Party contested the Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls and Lok Sabha elections.
The alliance performed strongly, securing 21 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The TDP won 16 seats, BJP three and JanaSena Party two.
In the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections, NDA registered a massive victory winning 164 out of the 175 seats in the Andhra Pradesh assembly with TDP winning 135 seats, Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP) 21, and the BJP winning 8 seats.
Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to be sworn in as the Chief Minister on June 12th, with a state cabinet-sharing meeting likely to take place on June 10th. (ANI)