Vijayawada: The Congress has claimed that it had adhered to the demand for Special Category Status for AP, and had been agitating for the past four years for the Centre to extend it to the state. The party reiterated that it would extend SCS to AP immediately if it came to power.
Congress Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao addressing a press meet at Vijayawada on Sunday said AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had only recently adopted the slogan for political mileage while the Congress for the past four years had been agitating for the SCS.
Dr Ramachandra Rao asked Mr Naidu to support the Congress towards achieving SCS and fulfilment of bifurcation promises. He also recalled the statement of Mr Naidu about the Congress supporting the SCS demand.
Releasing a letter that he had written to Mr Naidu, Dr Ramachandra Rao alleged that the CM for the past four years had blamed the Congress for alleged unscientific bifurcation of united AP. He had said that there was a chance to amend the AP Reorganization Act or include other benefits and rights to residuary AP but never tried to do that, Dr Ramachandra Rao said. He claimed that Mr Naidu wrote letters on August 18, 2008, January 5, 2011 and on December 27, 2012m demanding formation of Telangana state but was now cheating the Andhra public by hiding facts.
Dr Ramachandra Rao said that the Congress had several times appealed Mr Naidu to support its SCS agitation on the lines of Jallikattu agitation in Tamil Nadu but he and the Telugu Desam leaders had ridiculed the protests. Mr Naidu had now changed his opinion which wsa objectionable, the Congress MP said. He said that he had introduced a private member's Bill for SCS and fulfilment of bifurcation promises in the Rajya Sabha with the support of 14 political parties but the TD had never support his effort.
He said that TD government registered had cases against Congress leaders and activists for staging protests and agitations for SCS. Dr Ramachandra Rao opined that there is no use of SCS protests by TD as Prime Minister Narendra Modi would never accept it, and asked Mr Naidu to support Congress which was capable of giving SCS.
