The Andhra Pradesh government had appealed to the EC to review its decision to halt some of the state government's schemes such as Adarna, Deeepam and elements of the Janmabhoomi programme, which have been perceived as populist by the commission.

These schemes and programmes were started well before the election process had begun and there is no justification for the directive from the EC to discontinue them, Naidu said.

Questioning the rationale behind the decision, Naidu asked why Andhra Pradesh should be singled out for the action while every other state was pursuing its welfare programmes.

He pointed out that Madhya Pradesh was providing free power to farmers and supplying pump sets to them while the Rajasthan governmentwas also implementing LPG connection schemes to weaker sections. Hence, all the states shall be ordered to stop implementing the welfare schemes, he argued.Apart from the political fall-out of the EC directive for the TDP, Naidu has a problem of a different kind considering it would be logistically difficult to discontinue some of the schemes, the Deepam scheme for instance.The state government has earmarked about Rs 120 crore in the current year's budget to carry out these schemes with matching grants from centre. Under the Adarana programme Naidu has sought to provide power tools to artisans identified through local bodies.

Interestingly, some of these tools are being imported from countries like Malaysia.

The "Deepam" programme, which was launched hours before the election notification by the EC last Sunday, seeks to provide 10 lakh LPG connections to economically backward womanfolk through the Dwakra groups in the state. Release orders for 60,000 connections have already been issued withconsiderable enthusiasm for it among rural woman.

The scheme has been launched taking advantage of a central programme wherein the states can be alloted additional LPG in lieu of kerosene quotas which they forego. Likewise Rajasthan too has sought one lakh additional LPG connections under the scheme, Naidu said.