Hyderabad: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah will trigger off election campaign in Andhra Pradesh this month. According to the finalised tour schedule, Modi and Shah will participate in the public meetings on February 10 at Guntur and February 16 at Visakhapatnam.

According to BJP sources, Shah will flag off the bus yatra by BJP AP chapter president Kanna Lakshminarayana on February 4 at Palasa in Srikakulam district. Shah will also tour AP on February 21 as well, said Kanna.

BJP will be contesting on its own without any poll alliance, said BJP leader Vishnukumar Raju. However, he didn’t reply to a question on whether he would contest on BJP ticket.

Raju has agreed that latest decisions of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will favour the TDP in the forthcoming elections. “AP chief minister Naidu has increased pension and financial assistance to DWCRA groups. Naturally, these measures will help the ruling party in the next elections. Considering the elections only, the chief minister increased the amount of benefits,” added Raju.

BJP cadres are hoping that the visit of Modi and Shah will improve the sentiment for the saffron party in AP as the Prime Minister is expected to respond to the allegations mounted by the TDP against the BJP at several public meetings.

The ruling party TDP and the Modi-led NDA government are at the loggerheads since the 2018-19 Union Budget announcement. Naidu alleged that the Modi government has purposefully ignored the assurance of ‘Special Category Status’ (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh in the budget, while the BJP brushed aside the allegations.

On the other hand, the BJP president will tour Vizianagaram, Rajamahendravaram and Ongole on February 4, 21 and 26 respectively. He will visit these places to address Shakti Kendra Pramukhs in these Parliamentary constituencies.

As per the previous schedule, Prime Minister Modi was supposed to address at Budampadu, near Guntur, on January 6. However, it was postponed due to various reasons.