Rajya Sabha members of the ruling Telugu Desam Party and the main Opposition YSR Congress should support the private Bill on Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh when it comes up for voting on July 22, according to APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy.
Speaking at ‘meet-the-press’ programme organised by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) here on Monday, the Congress leader said that the private Bill introduced by Congress MP K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao should have come up for voting last session itself, but some political parties ‘conspired’ and prevented it.
Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said that the Congress wrote to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), TDP and the YSRC asking them to issue whip to their members to support the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
He said the Congress had taken up a few massive campaigns to bring pressure on the Centre to grant SCS to Andhra Pradesh. There was tremendous response from the public for the ‘Koti santakalu’ and ‘Mattisatyagraham’ programmes and to the slogan that SCS was the right of the A.P. people. Congress was able to garner the support of both Left parties – CPI and CPI(M) - Samajwadi party and BSP for the private Bill introduced by Mr. Ramachandra Rao, he said.
Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said top leaders of the Congress, including AICC president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Rajya Sabha member K Chiranjeevi, were also striving to get the Bill approved in the House of Elders.
‘YSRC losing ground’
He said the YSRC got votes on the basis of sentiment and it was losing the confidence of the people. Even while criticising the Telugu Desam for encouraging defections, the YSRC was still trying to woo leaders from the Congress. He said there was a lot of difference between the Congress and the YSRC.
Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said that it was unfortunate that YSRC chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was not emulating his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who patiently waited for the post of Chief Minister. All seniors in the Congress, including himself, would have worked for making him the Chief Minister if he had patience and stayed in the party. “He along with several others crossed the ‘Lakshmana Rekha’ and left the Congress,” he said.
