Jagan Punctures CBN’s Growth Narrative

YSR Congress Party President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Thursday that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is presenting a ‘glitzy growth narrative’ while falling power demand, stagnant tax revenues and rising unemployment reflect the state’s economic reality.

In a post on ‘X’, the YSRCP chief presented statistics in support of his claim. This comes amid the ongoing CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, where the state government headed by Chandrababu Naidu is busy signing MoUs.

“What we have been witnessing during the period of the TDP alliance Government is unprecedented levels of corruption and lawlessness, which the State Government attempts to conceal by putting forth a misleading narrative of rapid economic progress. However, the statistics present a very unambiguous picture of distress,” wrote the former Chief Minister.

He cited the falling energy demand. As per orders passed by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC), the power sale by DISCOMs during FY 2023-24 is 71,722 Million Units (MU )and energy dispatch is 79,758 MU, and the corresponding figures for FY 2025-26 are 70,885 MU and 78,546 MU. This clearly shows a reduction in power demand over the two years.

“In any growing economy, the power demand is expected to increase at a healthy pace owing to power requirements of new industries added, increased capacity utilisation of the existing industries and of higher consumption by households due to their enhanced purchasing power. But in Andhra Pradesh, over the last two years we witnessed a reduction in power demand, clearly exposing the sluggishness in the economy,” posted Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He pointed out that stagnant tax revenue also reflects an economic slowdown. “The State’s own tax revenues during FY 2023-24 were Rs. 85,922.36 crores and the provisional figures for FY 2025-26 released by the CAG also indicate the State’s own tax revenues to be Rs. 86,552.65 crores, indicating a CAGR over two years of only 0.15%, clearly evidencing fall in consumption and investment over the last two years,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy claimed that the economic slowdown is very adversely impacting the employment conditions, as evidenced by Andhra Pradesh ranking fourth in the Country amongst the States in terms of unemployment in the first quarter of FY 2026-27 and third in the Country in the second quarter of FY 2026-27.

“These figures clearly indicate the worsening situation in Andhra Pradesh, yet Chandrababu Naidu boasts of generating 23 lakh jobs,” he added.