Andhra Pradesh has gone beyond just special category status, says Chandrababu Naidu 

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu indicates that the TDP will not seek special category status for Andhra Pradesh or the Deputy Speaker’s position in Lok Sabha

In the national capital for the first time since becoming Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister for the fourth time, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N. Chandrababu Naidu said the State’s economy has gone beyond the stage of even a special category status. 

“We need to rebuild and reconstruct almost every institution in the State. It is far beyond just demanding a special category status,” he told The Hindu.

His remarks assume significance since the Narendra Modi government has already ruled out according special category status to any State. Mr. Naidu’s stance rules out any immediate possibility of a conflict between the two allies, the BJP and the TDP. Recently, the Janata Dal (United), another key BJP ally had also scaled down its demand for special category status for Bihar. The party’s national executive, at a recent meeting, passed a resolution demanding either “special status or special package” for Bihar. 

Comparing his earlier tenures in power, Mr. Naidu said this time he is starting his tenure not from scratch but far below that. “When I first came to power (1995), there was a lot of euphoria among our party cadres. We had our work cut out. In the second tenure (1999), we took forward from where we had left. My third tenure (2014) was tough, because the State had suffered a setback after the bifurcation. But this tenure, by far, is the most difficult. We are starting not from scratch, but far below that,” Mr. Naidu said, accusing his predecessor, YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy, of leaving the State behind in a precarious economic position. 

Also read|Currently, 11 States in India have Special Category Status.

Mr. Naidu clarified that his party did not ask for the Lok Sabha Speaker’s position nor is aiming for the Deputy Speaker’s post. “I did not join the alliance in search of any positions,” he added. 

During his two-day visit, apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he met six Union Ministers, with a long laundry list of demands for the State, including “handholding the State finances in the short term”, the Centre’s support for commissioning the Polavaram irrigation project, assistance to complete infrastructure works in Amaravati, the designated capital city of the State, and support to the backward regions of Andhra Pradesh on lines of the Bundelkhand package.