New Delhi:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday lead a march in Delhi to demand special status for his state. The protest march commenced from Andhra Bhavan and will end at Rashtrapati Bhavan where he will meet President Ram Nath Kovind. In March last year, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had pulled out of the Modi government over its refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, Chandrababu Naidu went on a daylong fast that became a rallying point for opposition unity for the second time in less than a month to fight the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu undertakes a protest march from Andhra Bhavan to Rashtrapati Bhavan over demand for special status for the state. pic.twitter.com/HhvukKdh9K
— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2019
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Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and TMC leader Derek O' Brien were among other opposition leaders who visited Andhra Bhavan to express their solidarity with Naidu, the supremo of TDP.
On Monday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Amit Shah wrote an open letter to the people of Andhra Pradesh where he launched a blistering attack on N Chandrababu Naidu and said that the TDP chief has destroyed the trust of the people. Amit Shah said the Andhra Pradesh chief minister knows that his political fortunes are declining rapidly and so he was back to theatrics in his desperation for grabbing headlines. Naidu’s “delusional politics” is about to end, he said, adding that the BJP has full faith in ‘Satyameva Jayate’ (truth prevails).
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In his letter posted on social media, Shah said people will teach Naidu a befitting lesson in the coming elections for joining hands with the Congress, which bifurcated the state in a “unilateral, hasty and unscientific manner, ignoring” its interests. The assembly elections in the state will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. Lashing out at Naidu, Shah said his party is aware that Naidu has “Congress blood” in him but it never expected that he will go to the extent of even surpassing the Congress in speaking lies and in carrying a “hate campaign” against the central government, Modi and the BJP.