YSR Congress Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister-designate YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday said he would make it a point to keep reminding Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue special category status to the state.
Reddy met PM Modi earlier today and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah in New Delhi to discuss this among other issues.
“Today was the first meeting with the prime minister. God willing I'll probably meet him maybe 30, 40, 50 times over these five years. I will make it a point to remind him every time of the Special Category Status matter... As long as we keep reminding, things will change,” Reddy said, in a press conference after the meeting.
The YSRCP chief said the situation would have been different had the BJP not got a clear majority at the Centre.
“The situation would have been different had they [BJP] won just 250 seats [in Lok Sabha election]. We would have then supported the BJP only after they signed the Special Category Status document. But now, they don't need us. We did what we could do and told him [PM Modi] of our situation,” he added.
Reddy also invited PM Modi for his swearing-in ceremony to be held in Vijayawada on May 30.
PM Modi, after the meeting, said he had "an excellent meeting" with Reddy.
"We had a fruitful interaction on several issues pertaining to Andhra Pradesh's development. Assured him all possible support from the Centre during his term," Modi tweeted.
The special category status has been a contentious issue which led to the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) pulling out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in March 2018. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu had accused the BJP of reneging on a promise to confer special category status on the state.
The BJP had cited the 14th Finance Commission’s report to say that Andhra Pradesh could not be granted special category status.
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