No compromise, asserts CM

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu rubbished the allegations of the Opposition parties that he was compromising on the issue of special status to the State. He asserted that the State government and TDP MPs would continue to exert pressure on the Centre until the promises to the State were fulfilled.
Speaking on the sidelines of the May Day celebrations here on Sunday, he said there was no point criticising the Centre just for the sake of special status and clarified that TDP MPs were continuing in the Central Cabinet only to protect the interests of the State.
In the same breath, however, he urged the Union government not to turn blind eye to their demand and urged it to come to the rescue of the State.
Justifying his stance to sail with the NDA alliance, he said that he was ready to go to any extent to scarify anything if it benefitted the State. He recalled that the TDP had a history of pulling out its MPs from the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the Centre to protect the interests of the State. However, he fervently appealed to the Union government to keep its promise by recalling that the BJP members had earlier even supported the idea of special status to the truncated State for the period of 10 years in Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister heaped criticism on the Congress party alleging that it had bifurcated the State without dividing the assets between two successor states correctly. This, he said, had pushed the State into financial crisis.