Naidu meets PM, raises issue of special status to state
6 Aug 2016 12:36 AM GMT
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here during which he is believed to have raised the issue of special status for his state. Sources said Naidu told the PM that a special status was assured to Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation by his predecessor Manmohan Singh and also by the TDP and the BJP during the polls and the promise must be delivered.
The Chief Minister is also believed to have said that since several political parties supported the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, the chances of their resistance to special status to the state is likely to be little.
Naidu, who landed in the national capital on Thursday, has since met President Pranab Mukherjee, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. The TDP, an NDA ally, has two ministers in the Modi Cabinet. With the Congress, YSR Congress, the main opposition party in AP, demanding a special status, the pressure has been mounting on the TDP over the issue.
Modi ‘betraying’ people on issue: Rahul
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday mounted an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “betraying” people of Andhra Pradesh on the issue of granting special category status to the state.
“Modiji a reminder: The decision 2grant Spl Category Status 2Andhra was taken by the Parl of this country in 2014.
“Today 5cr ppl of Andhra are watching BJP-TDP betray them,” he tweeted on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Gandhi’s remarks came in the wake of slugfest in the Rajya Sabha over a Congress member’s bill on reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh.
The ‘Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill’, moved by Congress member KVP Ramachandra Rao, was referred by the Upper House to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for a decision on its fate amid an uproar by Congress which led to premature adjournment of the House for the day.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke up on the issue, asked the Rajya Sabha to fulfil the commitments made by him in this regard over two years ago as the House took up the bill.
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