N Chandrababu Naidu lashes out at Centre over demand for special category status for Andhra Pradesh

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday again lashed out at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for not according special category status for the state. Refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reported statement that he had taken a ‘U-turn’ on the special category status issue, Naidu maintained that he had only taken the “right turn.” [caption id=“attachment_4404119” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Twitter@ncbn[/caption] “Neither did I take a U-turn nor did I fall into the YSR Congress trap. It was the BJP that took the U-turn after promising SCS to AP for 10 years,” Naidu said at a public meeting in Ongole town on Saturday evening. The meeting was part of a series being organised in every district by the ruling TDP in the state in its fight against the Centre over denial of special category status. Naidu also thanked opposition parties for ‘unconditionally" supporting the TDP sponsored no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on 20 July. “We have to whole-heartedly thank the congress party for unconditionally supporting our no-confidence motion even though we never requested it,” Naidu told the gathering. The chief minister claimed that he could enlist the support of all political parties in the country in the fight for AP’s rights. “Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, JD(U), AIADMK, BJD, RJD, DMK, JD(S), CPI, CPI-M, Shiv Sena, NCP, Akali Dal, Kerala Congress, PDP and even TRS have unconditionally supported us.” “TDP is the only party in the entire country that has left the Narendra Modi government totally shaken,” the TDP president said. The no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government was decisively defeated after an acrimonious debate in the Lok Sabha on 20 July. A total of 325 MPs opposed while 126 MPs supported the no trust motion moved by the TDP, a former BJP ally. While AIADMK MPs voted against the no-confidence motion, members of BJP ally Shiv Sena, BJD and TRS abstained. The TDP has been demanding that the Centre accord special category status for the state.