ANDHRA PRADESH: Christians should team up with the Telugu Deshan Party (TDP) to make use of their churches as platforms to help eliminate poverty in Andhra Pradesh, party chief N Chandrababu Naidu has said.

Naidu made these remarks at a meeting on Friday night addressing pastors in Gudivada town of Krishna district, where he noticedthat the Christian community is no exception to alleged harassment by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. ''Jagan Mohan Reddy has discontinued all the welfare schemes introduced by the Telugu Deshan Party government for Christians,'' he said in a statement.

The former chief minister said that numerous Christians were being forced to give up their organisations and possessions and that the "Christian Bhavan" he had constructed during his administration was converted into a quarantine facility during the Covid outbreak.

The pastors present at the meeting requested the TDP chief's backing while reiterating the need for Dalit Christians to be given Scheduled Caste (SC) status and pointing out that the group is being targeted under the guise of religious conversion.

'As a leader, I have come here to have first-hand information on the problems and issues that you are facing in addition to knowing your perspective,' Naidu responded in response to their cries. TDP always talks about the problems with various groups of people and welcomes your comments and counsel. These suggestions will definitely be taken into account by the party. In Andhra Pradesh, elections are scheduled for 2024. The Lok Sabha election is anticipated to coincide with the elections next year.

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