Private bill exposed BJP-TDP nexus: KVP Ramachandra Rao

Tirupati: Irrespective of its election fortunes, the Congress party is committed to achieve Special Category Status (SCS) to the State, said AP Congress Committee president N Raghuveera Reddy.Speaking at a meeting conducted on the occasion of the party conducting Praja Ballot (eliciting public opinion) here on Wednesday, Raghuveera Reddy observed that as a grand old party launched by Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Indira Gandhi, his party has more responsibility to get SCS as it is the only option for the development of the State benefitting all more so the youth.

I prayed to Lord Venkateswara during my visit to Tirumala temple along with the other State Congress leaders before coming here to give strength to achieve SCS and expose the very persons who promised SCS at your feet but failed to do so,’’ he said, reminding Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu about the assurance on SCS given at an election meeting here in 2014.

Strongly condemning the TDP for holding the Congress pa+rty responsible for bifurcation, Raghuveera said, “They (TDP leaders) are still spitting poison on us while the fact was that all the political parties except the CPM gave their consent for it.”

Two TDP MPs Devender Goud and Nama Nageswara Rao who are still in the party voted for bifurcation in Parliament, he said, hitting back at the TDP for singling out his party for the division of the State.Rajya Sabha MP KVP Ramachandra Rao said that his bill in the Rajya Sabha succeeded in drawing the attention of the whole country and also getting the support of all the political parties to SCS.

It has also exposed the double-standard approach of the BJP-TDP combine on the issue. Unfortunately after the bifurcation, the TDP was successful in misleading the people and making them believe that the Congress was solely responsible for the division and the subsequent woes of the State while a section of media added more to TDP Goebbels propaganda against Congress party, he added.

The senior Congress leader minced no words in attacking Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and said that the declaration of special package was delayed solely because of Polavaram project.He said the Chief Minister only wanted to ensure that the project execution work was handed over to the State. He alleged that Naidu agreed for the special package as it was personally beneficial for him.

Former MP Chintha Mohan said that Congress-led UPA initiated development works worth Rs 1 lakh crore in Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency and lamented that many of them were shelved after the TDP came to rule. The Congress leaders including MLC C Ramachandraiah, who spoke one after the other reiterated that the party alone is capable of getting SCS and declared that the party would not rest unit the Special Status is achieved.

Earlier, the leaders carrying the ballot boxes and other party activists came in a rally from Krishnapuram Tana to municipal office circle where the Praja Ballot and meeting was conducted. The venue was named after Muni Kamakoti, local Congress activist, who immolated himself at the Party `Poru Bata’ programme, held in the same place last year, upset over the delay in according SCS to the State.

The meet first observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to Muni Koti and also others who sacrificed their lives for SCS and also the farmers who committed suicide. Before the end of the meet, a party leader announced that 95 per cent of the people who took part in the ballot voted for SCS and same percentage felt that the TDP failed to fulfill the 600 promises made during the election.