Hyderabad: TS IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Saturday termed the fight for Special Category Status in AP as a “battle of political one-upmanship”.
In an interview to a Telugu news channel on Saturday, he said that all political parties, leaders and general public in AP lacked clarity on SCS and no one in that state was in a position to explain how special status would benefit them. He said there was a need to create awareness in AP over what special status is all about.
He also said that Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan lacked political maturity and remains in an utterly confused state over his political moves. Mr Rao opined the struggle for special status in AP was no match to Telangana statehood agitation spearheaded by TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao for 14 years, involving people from all walks of life.
“There is a marked difference between Telangana statehood agitation and AP's special status agitation. While people from all walks of life took part in Telangana agitation voluntarily, the AP’s special status agitation is about each political party and leader trying to gain the upper hand over the other leaders. While YSRC is trying to gain upper hand over the TD and BJP, the Jana Sena is trying to gain an upper hand over the YSRC. While Jagan is trying to settle scores with Chandrababu Naidu, Pawan Kalyan is trying to overtake Jagan. This is all nothing but a battle for political one-upmanship,” Mr Rao said.
Referring to Pawan Kalyan, Mr Rao said, “Though he may be a good person, he lacks political maturity. He is in a state of utter confusion over his political moves and that reflects in his speeches.”
Stating that TRS has no intention to take up programmes in AP to create awareness on special status, Mr Rao said, “We were elected by Telangana people and not by AP or Karnataka people. We have enough work to do in Telangana and time is not sufficient for us even if we work 48 hours a day.”
Mr Rao noted that TRS had indeed benefitted AP from bifurcation of the state.
“Due to bifurcation, AP got 29 prestigious institutions, airports etc, which they never could have imagined,” he said.
