Mr Rao ruled out that BJP was dragging its feet to accord the special status to discredit TD
All India general secretary of BJP P. Muralidhar Rao addresses a meeting on union budget 2015-2016 at BJP office near Appughar in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. (Photo: DC)
Visakhapatnam: BJP’s national general-secretary P. Muralidhar Rao on Saturday said the party was committed to the development of Andhra Pradesh and AP can still hope getting special status as promised by the BJP in the election manifesto.
Speaking at a conference here, Mr Muralidhar Rao said that what Union minister of state for planning Inderjit Singh told in Parliament was not specific to AP and Telangana states but about other states which were also hoping to be accorded special status. The delay in granting special status will not affect the development of AP. Special status to AP is under consideration and it’s only a matter of time, the BJP leader clarified.
“We have development agenda and also want to expand the party in AP among seven states in the country to make the BJP biggest party in the world. How can we ignore the interests of AP after giving an assurance, said Mr Rao while answering a series of questions on confusion over the special status to AP. When mentioned that the much-needed Polavaram project was moving at a snail’s pace, Mr Rao said a time frame would be set for completion of the project.
Mr Rao ruled out that BJP was dragging its feet to accord the special status to discredit TD. There is much space in AP to strengthen BJP and there is no need to disturb our alliance with TD, he added.
The finance minister was also much positive on special status to Andhra Pradesh and it was the responsibility of the state government to put forward the projects for sanction, Mr Rao said and added that most of the promised projects would be completed before the party approaches people for votes in 2019 elections.
Mr Rao said that BJP will be focusing on seven states_ Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam to strengthen its base.
Regarding the membership drive, Mr Rao said around 17 crore people have voted for the party in 2014 general elections and the leadership has decided to enroll 10 crore as members by April 30, 2015.
Verification and authentication of applicants would be taken up from May first week till July end and leaders would be picked from an exercise that would be taken up from August 1 for three months. Around 15 lakh active members would be selected as leaders from booth level to the national level, he added.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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