Accord Spl Status to AP or quit office: Cong to PM, CM

- Calls for district-wide agitations like demonstrations, ‘rasta roko’ protests and rallies on May 13
- Urges people, other political parties and intelligentsia to support agitation
- Wants BJP and TDP to support Special Status Bill to be introduced in Rajya Sabha by Congress member K V P Ramachandra Rao

Atmakur: Srisailam constituency Congress party in-charge Momin Shabana on Saturday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and State Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to either accord the promised special status to Andhra Pradesh or quit office.

Speaking to the media, she claimed that it was ‘shameful’ for the top BJP leadership to change its stand on the issue of special status to the State after holding out the promise.

Shabana called for district-wide agitations like demonstrations, ‘rasta roko’ protests, rallies on May 13 to press the demand for the special status to the State. She urged people, other political parties and intelligentsia to support the agitation. The Congress leader wanted both the BJP and the TDP to support the special status Bill to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Congress member K V P Ramachandra Rao. She expressed surprise over Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s silence on the issue after promising special status for ten years.

She alleged that the poor in the State had further been pushed into poverty following the rule by the TDP-BJP alliance government.

Shabana claimed that both Modi and Chandrababu Naidu were only undertaking foreign tours without attracting any investments to benefit the State.