KAKINADA: Castigating Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for his opportunist politics and burying the special category status (SCS) for political gains, YSR Congress Party has stated that the State government’s flip-flop policies has stalled development on all fronts in the State and reiterated it would continue its fight on the issue.
Protesting against the ‘betrayal’ of BJP-TDP in according SCS to Andhra Pradesh as promised, YSRC leaders on Friday staged ‘Vanchana Pai Garjana Deeksha’ in Kakinada on Friday.“It was a betrayal on part of the TDP that aligned with NDA for over four years and played down SCS issue. It went to the extent of thwarting all agitation programmes of the YSRC at various fora even as BJP-TDP and Jana Sena had assured SCS during 2014 electioneering,” YSRC leaders said.
Senior YSRC leaders Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, YV Subba Reddy, Vara Prasada Rao, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy said, “In recent months, Naidu took a complete U-turn and favoured SCS, while it was he and his government, with two ministers in the Union Cabinet, who never bothered about SPS and only accepted a special package in lieu of SCS.”
They said the TDP leadership has the dubious distinction of betraying people of Andhra Pradesh on all counts. “Naidu before the 2014 elections said SCS is needed for 15 years. After he came to power, he underplayed it and said that there is no need for SCS and tried to foil all our dharnas and deeksha across the State so much so we had taken the demand to Delhi. We first introduced the no-confidence motion against NDA for not giving SCS and other issues mentioned in the State Division Bill and party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was at the forefront on various issues of public interest,” they said.
They explained their party MPs had resigned expressing dissent over non-implementation of SCS, while the TDP didn’t share their point of view. Naidu has been changing colours to suit his personal gains; he never bothered about public interest. He always kept his personal interest ahead of everything and helped only his coterie, the YSRC leaders alleged.
When Jagan’s popularity was soaring, TDP leadership could not tolerate it and even engineered an attempt on his life at Visakhapatnam International Airport, but he was saved, they said.While on the TDP joining hands with Congress, the YSRC leaders reminded how Naidu used to berate Congress and its leaders, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, and now he has joined hands with it with the agenda of getting back to power.