Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh bats for Muslim reservation

Nara Lokesh

TDP leader Nara Lokesh spoke out in favour of reservations for Muslims on Friday, insisting that it was ‘social justice’ rather than appeasement. The remarks come days after the party won the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections and became a ‘kingmaker’ for the BJP in the Lok Sabha.

Lokesh — the son of party chief Chandrababu Naidu — also said that the TDP would continue reservations provided to Muslims in the state.

TDP's NDA ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party had attacked the governments in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka for providing reservation on religious grounds.

TDP's good performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections have placed N Chandrababu Naidu in the position of the proverbial kingmaker. With 16 seats in his kitty, Naidu's support to Narendra Modi is indispensable for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won 240 Lok Sabha seats--32 short of the majority mark. For the first time since 2014, the BJP will have to depend on its allies -- mainly TDP and JD(U) -- to remain in power.

“It (reservation for Muslims) has been going around for the last 2 decades and we stand by it. We intend to continue it. It's a fact that the minorities continue to suffer and that they have the lowest per capita income. As a government, it is my responsibility to bring them out of poverty. So whatever decisions I take are not for appeasement, but to bring them out of poverty," the TDP leader told NDTV.

Nara Lokesh told PTI that his party would support Narendra Modi unconditionally. "We joined NDA unconditionally before elections; we will continue to be in NDA unconditionally... We believe that he (Modi) should be the Prime Minister of India and there is no second thought about it,” he said.