CM Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to pursue his demand for a special category status for Andhra Pradesh.
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided not to accept the post of Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker as he wants to pursue his demand for a special category status for the state. With this development, the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to retain the post in a departure from the tradition of offering it to an Opposition party in the Lok Sabha.
Jagan has been weighing political options on accepting the Deputy Speaker’s post since the same was offered to his party through an emissary a month ago. However, a written reply by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in Lok Sabha on Thursday making it clear that there was no proposal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh is understood to have sealed the fate of YSR Congress moving close to the BJP.
The MoS reply came in response to a question from YSR Congress MP Balli Durga Prasad (Tirupati-SC) on the demand from Andhra for special status. Durga Prasad in his question mentioned that the newly elected Andhra Assembly had last month passed a unanimous resolution, urging the Centre to grant special status to the state. However, the MoS reply reiterated the Centre’s stand on the issue.
Prior to the answer from the Centre, YSR Congress parliamentary party leader K. Vijaysai Reddy had tried his best to secure some assurance from the BJP-led government that there would be some rethinking on the issue. The slightest change in the Centre’s stand would have paved the way for close ties between YSR Congress and BJP at the national level.
Jagan would have accepted the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker’s post. A categorical reply from the MoS that the 14th Finance Commission had removed any possibility of any state being granted special status had tied the hands of the YSR Congress.
The party had attacked the previous TDP government in Andhra Pradesh for its failure to secure special status from the Centre even after being a partner in the Modi 1.0 government.
While backing the resolution for special status in the Assembly in June, the Opposition TDP had taunted YSR Congress to achieve the demand from the BJP now. “Despite being a constituent of the NDA government, we have failed to achieve the status. Now, people gave their mandate to you to achieve the same, let’s see how you will do that,” said TDP deputy leader in the Assembly K. Atchennaidu.
Sensing that the special status demand is unlikely to come easily from the Centre, Jagan has decided to maintain a safe distance from the BJP government at the Centre, according to some MPs of YSR Congress. Already, the party leader in Lok Sabha P.V. Mithun Reddy has been named a panel speaker and in that capacity, he would get occasional opportunity to chair the sessions.
“Beyond that, we will not move closer to BJP at this stage as neither of us has any need for it. We will also press for the demand time and again with the Centre,” said a YSR Congress MP in Lok Sabha.
Even AP Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath in his annual budget for 2019-20 presented in the Assembly on Friday claimed that the Jagan government would keep alive the special status demand in the next five years.