The unanimous demand from all political parties and the lone civil society organization Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samiti is that chief minister Naidu’s should lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi to mount pressure on the central government to get special category state status accorded to AP.
All political parties, including opposition YSRC expressed their willingness to fight under Naidu’s leadership to get the special status tag to AP. For the past one week, to be precise after his return from New Delhi, opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy has intensified his attack on chief minister Naidu for two things, special status and Telangana irrigation projects.
For the past few months PCC president has been demanding Naidu that he lead a delegation to New Delhi to place the collective demand of the people of Andhra Pradesh before Prime Minister Modi. Later, YSRC also agreed to be led by Naidu, as chief minister of the state, in the fight for special status. Now, CPI secretary Ramakrishna also demanded for an all party delegation.
Two days ago, Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samiti honorary president Chalasani Srinivas deplored the delay by Naidu in convening an all- party meeting in order to take an all-party delegation to New Delhi. The demanded gained momentum with centre ruling out the special status and more funds to bridge revenue gap.
As for Naidu, there has been no response from the chief minister and he looks a bit hesitant. His hesitation to lead the all-party might have stemmed from the fact the he is the tallest leader in the state and there is no political party that equals with TDP in the state. Congress has been rejected by the party. CPI has no representation in Assembly. YSRCP is, in his view, a sinking ship. How would Naidu lead a delegation of these parties, which have no representation in Assembly?
When chief minister Rajasekhar Reddy came forward to lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi in 2007, on many occasions, every party had a modicum of representation in Assembly. Whenever, there was some critical demand like categorization of SC reservations or Babli issue and BC reservations in legislative bodies, YSR used to proactively announce that he was ready to take an all-party delegation to New Delhi. But this is a difficult proposition for Naidu to implement it buckling under pressure from the opposition parties which are too small now.
Just two days back, Telangana chief minister KCR also called upon all political parties to be ready for a united fight against Andhra Pradesh’s opposition to Telangana irrigation projects. Still Naidu is unresponsive.
