Arun Jaitley's comparison of Andhra Pradesh with Bihar to deny special category status 'triggered' TDP's exit, says MP TG Venkatesh

New Delhi: A TDP parliamentarian said on Friday that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley comparing Andhra Pradesh to Bihar to deny the southern state the special category state status “angered” the people and was one of the factors behind the party’s decision to pull out its ministers of the central government. [caption id=“attachment_4342347” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. PTI image[/caption] “The Union finance minister in a press meet compared Andhra Pradesh to Bihar to deny Andhra Pradesh a special category state status and that also contributed in our party president (and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu) announcing the resignations of two ministers,” he said, adding that it hurt the sentiments and angered the people of Andhra Pradesh. “When you make such comparison, there arises a question why should we give special status to AP while having a state more backward, Bihar. This is wrong. They angered the people, ministers and the chief minister. It was a promise made in Parliament and the comparison was not right,” TDP Rajya Sabha MP TG Venkatesh told reporters. To a query on whether special category state status would be granted to Andhra Pradesh, Jaitley at a press conference on 7 March had said “Why not Bihar? Why not Jharkhand? Central Government has to look at 29 states.” Under relentless opposition attack over its failure to secure special category state status for Andhra Pradesh, the state’s ruling TDP pulled out of the Modi government on Wednesday. President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday accepted the resignations of Telugu Desam Party ministers Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pasupati and YS Chowdary. Raju on Friday for the first time joined his party MPs in a protest inside the Parliament Complex raising their demand. The ministers after their resignations said that they would now have “more freedom” to protest for the rights of Andhra Pradesh.