Naidu made a request at a meeting with Arvind Panagariya, chairman of the state’s finance committee who visited last week. The Chief Minister presented detailed cases of funding increase and outlined various development priorities.
Panagariya also met with representatives of political parties during her visit. However, the National BJP has adopted a different attitude.
In the memorandum submitted to the committee, BJP MLA Adinarayana Reddy and party spokesman Lanka Dinakar supported retaining the existing 41% share, while suggesting a mechanism to consider the financial sensitivity of individual states.
“We are not asking for power to be reduced to 50%. Instead, we put forward special weights based on financial needs in states such as Andhra Pradesh and sector-specific funding for areas such as health and education. Total, this is more than 50% of the results.”
TDP spokesman Pattabhi Ram Kommareddy insists that states seeking more funding from the center are standard practices. “It’s not a conflict within the NDA. Every state needs what it needs. It’s part of the process,” he said.
