Jagan dares govt to arrest him

​Hyderabad: Alleging that the ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh has not doing enough to get Special Category Status for the State, YSR Congress Party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy said that he would participate in a candle light rally proposed to be held at Visakhapatnam on Thursday and dared the government to arrest him.

At a press conference here on Wednesday, Jagan said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had mortgaged special status claiming that all benefits would come. “All that he speaks is lies," Reddy told reporters here.

Jagan said the Chief Minister should take a delegation of all party leaders to the Prime Minister. If Naidu decides to do so, he said he would join him and if Delhi still does not agree, to give special status, Naidu should make it clear that he would withdraw his Ministers from the Union Cabinet.

In support of Naidu, he said he would ask all his MPs to resign from Lok Sabha. Similarly, Naidu should also ask his MPs to quit and go for elections so that they can draw the attention of the nation.

YSRC chief said his party would raise the special status issue in the coming Budget session of Parliament, and that the party MPs would quit their posts after the monsoon session.

YSR Congress had won nine Lok Sabha seats, including one in Telangana in the 2014 elections. However, later two of the MPs, including the one in Telangana, crossed sides to the ruling parties. The party also has one Rajya Sabha member.

The promise of special
category status was made to Andhra Pradesh by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament when the bill for bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh was passed.

However, the NDA government has announced a package of benefits for Andhra Pradesh, saying special status cannot be given following recommendations of 14th Finance Commission.

Maintaining that the package is not a substitute for special status, the YSRC chief said benefits like industrial incentives would only come with the special status.