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Andhra CM Naidu to take on PM Modi at Niti Aayog meeting over ‘broken’ special category status promise
The Niti Aayog meeting will be the first time Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi since snapping ties with the NDA over the special category status.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is likely to raise strongly a host of the state issues, including the Centre’s refusal to grant ‘special category status’ to the state, during the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.
For the past four days, the chief minister has held extensive discussions with the state ministers, top bureaucrats and MPs on the issues to be raised during the fourth Governing Council meeting of the NITI Aayog.
This will be the first time that Naidu, who broke off ties with the NDA over the matter in March, will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi since pulling out of the BJP-led alliance.
The chief minister has been vocal in his criticism of PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, and is expected to directly confront the Prime Minister over the alleged unfulfilled promise made at the time of the state’s bifurcation – of granting Andhra Pradesh the special category status.
A communique, issued by the CM’s Office and also the state’s ruling Telugu Desam Party, said Naidu will not like to let go of the opportunity and use the meeting to press the state’s demands.
The chief minister will also seek to muster support from other CMs such as Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), HD Kumaraswamy (Karnataka), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) and others.
“We will strongly demand the promise of according special category status be honoured immediately in tune with the people’s sentiments and that the Centre extend all support to the state till we reach a level-playing field with other states,” he said during a meeting with ministers and bureaucrats on Friday.
“We are not seeking anything more than what has been promised in the Reorganisation Act and also in Parliament,” he added.
At a meeting with his party MPs, Naidu said there was not much on the NITI Aayog Governing Council agenda and hence he would take up with the Prime Minister the promises made to the state and their non-fulfilment.
“Rather than extending a helping hand, the Centre has only been blocking our progress at every step in the last four years. Despite all odds post-bifurcation, we have emerged as the fastest growing state in the country with a GSDP growth rate of 10.5 per cent. This was only because of our hard work,” he claimed.
Naidu also went on to say that the credibility of the Centre has eroded after botched measures like demonetisation and GST.
These issues, as well as the hike in petrol and diesel prices, discrepancies in MSP for agricultural products and crop insurance schemes will also be raised at the NITI Aayog meeting, the CMO said.
