Chandrababu Naidu disappoints, Congress will fight for AP special status
New Delhi: Congress on Saturday vowed to fight for securing Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh telling Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that he had "disappointed" the Opposition by not raising the issue in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi two days back.
"Congress demands Special Status to AP and shall fight for it. Chandra Babu didn't even demand in the function. You disappointed us Babu", party General Secretary Digvijay Singh said in a tweet.
Modi ignored the sentiments of the people of AP by not announcing Special Status for AP as committed by Dr Man Mohan Singh ji in Parliament.
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) October 24, 2015Congress demands Special Status to AP and shall fight for it. Chandra Babu didn't even demand in the function. You disappointed us Babu
— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) October 24, 2015The remarks of Singh, who is in charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, are significant as they came close on the heels of the foundation ceremony for Andhra Pradesh's new capital Amaravati after which there was criticism over Naidu Government's alleged failure to secure any concrete pledge of financial assistance from the Prime Minister.
Opposition parties have also pilloried the Prime Minister for remaining silent on granting Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh.
A few days back, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had written to Prime Minister for early grant of special category status for Andhra Pradesh, telling him about "disappointment and pain" among people over the Centre's "failure" to honour its commitments.
"Over one year has elapsed since the NDA government has come to power, but many of the commitments made to the state--including special category status-remain unfulfilled", he had said in the letter.
Noting that the state was facing a huge revenue deficit and development initiatives have been at a standstill, he had said that despite the obvious need for immediate aid, the Centre has still not acted to extend support.
