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Cong leader Y S Sharmila protests in Delhi, seeks special category status for Andhra Pradesh
On February 2, Andhra Pradesh Congress president Y S Sharmila staged a sit-in protest to pressurise the Centre to grant special category status to the state
Hyderabad: The demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh, which was the major issue during the 2019 assembly elections in the state that catapulted Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) to power, is back to the fore before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
On February 2, newly appointed state Congress president Y S Sharmila, sister of chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, staged a sit-in protest at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi, to pressurise the Centre to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh. Accompanied by senior Congress leaders — N Raghuveera Reddy, M M Pallam Raju, J D Seelam and former Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Gidugu Rudra Raju, Sharmila left for New Delhi on February 1 to stage the dharna.
Earlier, she wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking special category status and implementation of other promises made during the bifurcation of the state. She recalled that on February 20, 2014, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh made a statement in the Rajya Sabha during the passage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, promising to grant special category status to the state. “But the Modi government has conveniently ignored the implementation of the promises made under the Act, including the special category status,” she said in Hyderabad before leaving for Delhi.
Sharmila met leaders from other parties in Delhi, including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Tiruchi N Shiva and national secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, and sought their support to raise the issue in the Parliament.
After taking over as the APCC chief in the last 10 days, Sharmila has been raising the issue of special category status in all her party meetings, starting from Ichchapuram on January 23 to Kadapa on January 29. “Before the 2019 elections, Jagan made a hue and cry over the special category status and instigated the people on the issue with an eye on power. But after becoming the chief minister, he conveniently ignored the same and surrendered to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre,” she criticised the CM at the Ichchapuram meeting.
“The status would fetch special grants from the Centre along with a lot of incentives to the industries in the state. This would further promote more industrial establishments in the state, thus generating huge employment,” she asserted.
She pointed out that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had already assured that if the Congress-led coalition came to power at the Centre, it would immediately grant the special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
The demand for special category status, which was almost forgotten in the past five years, started picking up again with some other political groups, apart from Sharmila, raising it ahead of the upcoming elections.
Former joint director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) V V Lakshminarayana, who investigated high-profile cases like the Satyam scam, Bellary coal mining scam and the quid pro quo case of Jagan Mohan Reddy, floated a political outfit, Jai Bharat National Party (JBNP), in December last year, with special category status to Andhra Pradesh as the main poll plank.
At a protest held at Visakhapatnam on January 30, Lakshminarayana reiterated that the issue of special category status was not a ‘closed chapter’. He alleged that neither the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) nor YSRCP exerted pressure on the Centre, despite having ample opportunity to do so in the last 10 years. “We shall revive the fight to achieve the status of Andhra Pradesh,” he declared.
However, YSRCP claimed that it had been raising the issue whenever the CM met Prime Minister Modi. “We shall raise the issue again during the ongoing budget session of the Parliament, along with the other pending issues mentioned in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,” said B Satyavathi, an MP of YSRCP, after attending the all-party meeting held by the Centre on January 30.
TDP MP Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar also said they would take up the issue during the Parliament session. “Apart from support for Amaravati, funding for Polavaram and a new railway zone for Visakhapatnam, we shall also demand for a special category status for Andhra Pradesh,” Kumar said.
