The Congress party’s State working president N. Thulasi Reddy on Friday said Special Category Status (SCS) would act as a panacea for all the problems ailing the State.
In a statement, he said only the Congress could achieve SCS for the State, which is why it was necessary for the party to win the Tirupati Lok Sabha by-elections.
He said the BJP, in its election manifesto, had promised to implement SCS for Andhra Pradesh for 10 years if voted to power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had given his word to the people of the State during his election meeting in Tirupati, reneged on it citing the 14th Finance Commission as an excuse. The senior Congress leader said that even during the recent elections in Puducherry, the BJP promised to grant Special Category Status to that State if the party was voted to power. The party had been resorting to ‘politics of opportunism’, said Mr. Thulasi Reddy, adding that a BJP victory in Tirupati by-polls would mean denial of SCS to A.P.
He said the last seven years had proved that it was beyond the capacity of regional parties like the TDP or the YSR Congress Party to bring SCS to the State. Thus, there was a historic need for the Congress to win the Tirupati by-elections, he said.
