Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], December 10 (ANI): In a sharp political attack, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy accused the ruling TDP Government of presenting 'cooked' and misleading economic figures regarding the State's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

In a post shared on social media on Tuesday, Jagan alleged that the advance estimates released by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for the first half of FY 2025-26 were deliberately manipulated to project a false picture of robust economic performance.

Jagan stated that while the Government may alter advance estimates, it cannot influence the audited State accounts prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). 'The economic reality conveyed by the CAG accounts shows abysmally low revenue growth, unprecedented borrowings, low capital expenditure, weak consumption and investment, and alarming deficits,' he said, accusing the Government of presiding over 'rampant corruption' and plundering State revenues.

https://x.com/ysjagan/status/1998384676428562943?s=46

Referring to Abraham Lincoln's famous quote about deception, i.e., 'You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time'. Jagan said the TDP alliance was trying to mislead the public into believing the economy was booming, even as fiscal indicators told a different story. He posed a series of questions to Naidu.

He asked, 'If the economy is flourishing, why is the State facing severe fiscal stress?'

Then he asked, 'If GSDP growth under TDP (2014-19) was as strong as claimed, why has Andhra Pradesh's contribution to national GDP fallen from 4.78% (2019-24) to 4.45%?'

The third and final question he asked was, 'If the economy performed admirably under TDP earlier, why did the State's per-capita income ranking not improve?'

Jagan urged the public to review the detailed slides he shared, which he said exposed the 'truth' behind Naidu's performance claims and allegations against the YSRCP Government's 2019-24 tenure.

The whole presentation was made available via the link in his post, intensifying the political debate over Andhra Pradesh's fiscal health and economic trajectory. (ANI)