Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Gidugu Rudra Raju has appealed to Rahul Gandhi, Priyanaka Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Khare to address public meetings in the State to inspire and rejuvenate the party leaders and cadres ahead of the elections.
Speaking at the Congress Working Committee meeting in Hyderabad, Mr. Rudra Raju said people of Andhra Pradesh were able to see through the BJP’s “delaying tactics” with regard to the fulfilment of the promises made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, and had realised that the TDP and the Jana Sena Party were “mere puppets in the hands of the BJP at the Centre.”
“Now is the right time for the party leadership to plan visits by prominent leaders such as Mr. Rahul Gandhi and Ms. Priyanka Gandhi, besides Mr. Kharge, to rejuvenate the party leaders and cadres,” he observed.
Mr. Rudra Raju proposed a meeting to be addressed by Mr. Rahul Gandhi in Visakhapatnam to speak about key issue of privatisation of the steel plant and another by Ms. Priyanka Gandhi in Vijayawada-Amaravati, and similar meetings in Tirupati and Anantapur by Mr. Kharge.
Stating that the Congress party was committed to the development of Andhra Pradesh, he said that the AICC plenary had. on March 18, 2018, unanimously passed a resolution condemning the neglect of the State by the BJP government at the Centre. The party had declared that it would implement the promised Special Category Status (SCS0 for the State if voted to power, Mr. Rudra Raju recalled.
On July 20, 1918, Mr. Kharge had moved a no-confidence motion against the Central government demanding that it fulfil the promises made in the Reorganisation Act, while Mr. Rahul Gandhi, who was the Congress president, had expressed his solidarity with people of the State, the APCC chief said.
Promises made in Act
He said there were certain provisions in the Reorganisation Act to safeguard the financial interests of the State, which included the SCS for a period of five years, completion of the Polavaram project, special economic packages for the backward Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra districts, allocation of financial assistance for building a new capital city, distribution of assets in the ratio of 58:42 between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, fulfil the budget resource gap for the 2014-15 financial year, development of the Vizag-Chennai Industrial Corridor, separate railway zone in Vizag, construction of major port Dugarajapatnam, and establishment of a steel plant in Kadapa district.
