Even as Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu called for restraint on the Special Category Status (SCS) issue, Anantapur MP J.C. Diwakar Reddy said it was high time the TDP severed its ties with the BJP for the latter’s indifference to the State’s plea for special status.
However, the party MPs would abide by Mr. Naidu’s decision, Mr. Reddy said, expressing confidence in the Chief Minister’s capability to deal with the matter.
Some other MPs echoed the sentiment in their meeting with Mr. Naidu at his office here on Sunday.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr. Diwakar Reddy said that denial of SCS was a part of the BJP’s political strategy to suppress the Chief Minister and asserted that no rule would come in the way of conferring SCS to A.P. if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was willing to reach out.
Hitting back at YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for giving a bandh call, Mr. Diwakar Reddy said it would be of no use and advised him to behave with maturity.
In the meeting with MPs earlier, Mr. Naidu was learnt to have called for better presentation of the State’s arguments for SCS in Parliament and said no effort should be spared to make the BJP keep its promises.
Union Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Deputy Chief Ministers K.E. Krishna Murthy and N. Chinarajappa, MPs Y.S. Chowdary, Jayadev Galla, Kesineni Srinivas, Mr. Diwakar Reddy, Thota Narasimham, T.G. Venkatesh, Garikapati Mohan Rao, Maganti Venkateswara Rao, and Konakalla Narayana Rao were among those who took part in the deliberations.
Denial of SCS is part of BJP’s political strategy to suppress the Chief Minister
J.C. Diwakar Reddy
