The Congress Party, which could not win a single seat in the elections to Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 2014 in the aftermath of state bifurcation, is going all out to revive its fortunes by taking up the issue of the promised special category status to the State.

The NDA Government has only sanctioned a special package for the State in lieu of the promised SCS and has made it clear that it will not be able to honour the promise, giving an assurance however that the State will not lose anything in the bargain and the special package will more than make up for it.

The Congress is going to hold a public meeting at Guntur on Sunday on the controversial issue and it is to be attended by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as well as the leaders of several other parties such as the two communist parties, the DMK, the Samajawad Party and others to express their solidarity with AP on the issue and to demand the BJP to honour its promise.

The promise was made by the BJP and also its ally, the Telugu Desam, during the election campaign in 2014 and prior to that in the Rajya Sabha a statement was made by former prime minister Manmohan Singh that Andhra Pradesh would be given special category status for five years. The statement was supported by the BJP in the Rajya Sabha.

Congress State president N. Raghuveera Reddy accused both the BJP and the 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 the 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.

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