Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu along with Telugu Desam Party MPs and MLAs met President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday and raised the demand for special status for the state.
The delegation marched from Andhra Pradesh Bhavan to Rashtrapati Bhavan and presented a memorandum to the President with 18 demands, including the Bifurcation Act promises and special status to the state.
“We met the President and apprised him of our demands. The central government has ignored the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation act promises. Modi government is passing the time without releasing grants to the state.
“For the development of Hyderabad there has been a struggle for 60 years and today it stands as a world-class city. On seeing the injustice done to Andhra Pradesh many people went into depression and recently a physically challenged man Arjun Rao has committed suicide over the special status not being granted to the state,” Naidu said at a press conference.
He said that a possibility of a pre-poll alliance with opposition parties cannot be ruled out.
“Nothing is decided yet but possibility of a pre-poll alliance with opposition parties cannot be ruled out,” he added.
Bringing his battle for special status for his state to the national capital, Naidu on Monday went on a daylong fast that became a rallying point for opposition unity for the second time in less than a month to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Naidu, who is trying to unite opposition parties, has over the last three months held a number of meetings with opposition party leaders on forming an anti-BJP front. The TDP pulled out of the National Democratic Alliance government in March last year over its refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh.
Demanding that the Centre fulfil promises made during Andhra Pradesh’s bifurcation in 2014, the TDP president has been alleging that Modi was not following ‘raj dharma’ by denying the state special status.
Photographs: SnapsIndia
