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YSR Congress leader says party will fight 2019 Lok Sabha elections alone
YSR Congress MLAs, MLCs, former MPs undertook a day-long hunger strike to protest against BJP-led Centre for allegedly betraying Andhra Pradesh.
YSR Congress party said on Thursday it would fight the forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh on its own to achieve the special category status to the state as it abstained from voting in the poll for the post of the deputy chairman in the Rajya Sabha.
The MLAs, MLCs, former MPs and other senior functionaries of the party undertook a day-long hunger strike in the name of “Vanchana Pai Deeksha” or protest against the betrayal of the state in Guntur.
The leaders, dressed in black, vowed to continue their fight for the special category status and implementation of all the promises made in The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The former member of Parliament YV Subba Reddy said while the Congress had betrayed the people by dividing combined Andhra Pradesh indiscriminately, the Bharatiya Janata Party had cheated the people by denying the state the special category status.
“That is why we have decided to maintain equidistance from both the parties. We shall go alone in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections,” Reddy said.
Another former MP from Nellore Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy echoed Subba Reddy’s views.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party has ditched the state by denying the status and backtracking on its promises on important projects like railway zone for Visakhapatnam, Kadapa steel plant, Dugarajapatnam port and Kakinada petrochemical complex,” Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy said.
“At the same time, the Telugu Desam Party, which had sailed with the BJP for four long years, has miserably failed to achieve any of the promised projects to the state and has taken a U-turn on special category status during the election year,” he added.
Party MLC and its official spokesperson Ummareddy Venkateshwarlu demanded that chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu must tender an unconditional apology to the people for his inefficiency in securing benefits to the state during his four-year association with the BJP.
He said Naidu should be booked and prosecuted for cheating the people all these years with false promises.
The Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh has also been demanding a special status for the state from a long time. Chief minister Naidu’s party pulled out of the alliance with the NDA in March this year after it accused the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not living up to the promise of granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
YSR Congress’ national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy said in New Delhi his party did not vote in the elections for the Rajya Sabha’s deputy chairman post because the Congress fielded its own candidate deviating from its earlier stand of giving the post to one of its allies.
“We are opposing the Congress as it has failed to incorporate special category status in the state bifurcation act,” he explained.
“And the BJP, which had vociferously argued for the status for 10 years, remained silent and is now saying the status is not possible. Our position is like being caught between the devil and the deep sea. Hence, we abstained from voting,” he added.
