Comments
The Congress, which failed to win a single seat in the 2014 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, is going all out to revive its fortunes by taking up the issue of the Special Category Status promised to the State after bifurcation.
The Narendra Modi government has only sanctioned a special package for the State and has made it clear that it will not be able to honour the promise of granting SCS. The Centre has, however, assured the State that it will not lose anything in the bargain and that the special package will more than make up for the absence of SCS.
Seeking to raise the issue, the Congress will on Sunday hold a public meeting at Guntur, where party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi as well as the leaders of the two communist parties, the DMK, the Samajawadi Party will be in attendance.
The promise to confer SCS on Andhra Pradesh was made by the BJP and also its ally, the Telugu Desam Party, during the 2014 election campaign. Prior to that, then prime minister Manmohan Singh had stated in the Rajya Sabha that the State would be given SCS for five years.
Congress State chief N Raghuveera Reddy accused both the BJP and the State’s ruling TDP of going back on the promise and letting down the people of the State. “The granting of SCS is critical to the development of the State after bifurcation. That was why former prime minister Manmohan Singh made the statement in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP should honour the promise, and we will exert pressure on the government to do so,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.