AMARAVATI: Dropping hints that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu could possibly be the opposition choice for the Prime Minister's post to replace Narendra Modi, JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda Monday said the country was looking towards the TDP president's leadership. Addressing public meetings and rallies of TDP in Andhra with Naidu, Gowda said at a time when the prime minister Narendra Modi was abusing the central agencies to target his opponents, Naidu has united the regional parties to take on Modi. 

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When the country was at such a critical juncture, Mr. Naidu has "accepted the challenge" and "why cannot he become the PM of the country," Deve Gowda asked. “Modi has abused all the constitutional institutions like CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax to target opponents and destroy the regional leadership,” accused Gowda. The former prime minister started his address at the first rally in Tiruvuru referring to TDP chief Naidu as "honorable Prime Minister" and then corrected it to "would-be Prime Minister."

“In this critical juncture, Naidu has emerged a challenger to Modi.” Modi has betrayed the people of India in general and people of Andhra in particular by ditching them on conferring special category status and funding the world-class capital city at Amaravati, said Gowda. “It is not so simple to consolidate all the regional parties who have their own ideologies,” said Gowda, adding that “There are no regional leaders with leadership to prepare to lead the battle collectively against Narendra Modi.” 

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