APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy said on Wednesday that all political parties, except the CPI(M), had agreed to the bifurcation of the State and it was wrong to blame the Congress alone for the turn of events.
Addressing a gathering during the ‘Pratyeka hoda mahasabha – Praja Ballot’ programme organised near the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati, he urged the State and Central governments to fulfil the promise of according Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said that it was TDP’s Nama Nageswara Rao and T. Devender Goud who had voted for bifurcation in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively.
“How will Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu respond to this? Will he accept that he supported the State’s bifurcation? Even MLC Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu voted for bifurcation during the all-party meeting convened by then Chief Minister K. Rosaiah,” the APCC president said.
He said that the Chief Minister, who initially batted for SCS for 10 years, suddenly changed his stance and accepted the special package announced by the Centre.
Referring to the electoral promises made by the TDP, Mr. Raghuveera Reddy asked the ruling party to focus on fulfilling them instead of criticising the Congress and confusing the people.
“It has been more than two years and nearly 300 promises are yet to be fulfilled. People have voted for SCS in the Praja Ballot. We will organise such events at every level and clear the misconceptions being created against the Congress by the opposition parties,” he added.
Party leaders K. Bapiraju, N. Tulasi Reddy, J.D. Seelam, Panabaka Lakshmi and Chinta Mohan explained the provisions of the State Reorganisation Act, and asserted that the special package was no different from the provisions already mentioned in the Act.
‘State, Centre
cheating people’
MP K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao said that both the Central and State governments were cheating the people.
Former Minister S. Sailajanath recollected the sacrifice of party worker Muni Kamakoti, who died during the party’s ‘Poru Sabha’ organised at the same venue in 2015. Earlier, the Congress leaders took out a rally from the Krishnapuram Thana area to the MCT office, seeking people’s opinion on SCS and performance of the TDP-led government. They asserted that Congress alone was capable of according SCS to Andhra Pradesh.
