It calls on the people of the poll-bound UT to accept the Saffron Party’s promise with a pinch of salt
CPI (M) Central Committee member V. Srinivasa Rao called on the people of Puducherry on Sunday to take with a pinch of salt the BJP’s election promise to give Union territory special category status (SCS).
The Prime Minister’s promise
Mr Rao coordinated the campaign in the seven assembly segments, including four in Nellore District, in support of party candidate N. Yadagiri for the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised Andhra in Tirupati SCS Pradesh in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections 2014.
Upon coming to power, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had voiced the Centre’s inability to grant SCS to Andhra Pradesh and blamed the Center-to-State financial relocation scheme developed by the 14th Finance Commission. Rao remembered.
The ruling BJP at the center was set to prove its sincerity by first giving coveted status to Andhra Pradesh, which had struggled to overcome the bifurcation blues before moving on to the SCS for Puducherry.
Warned Pawan
He said the Jana Sena party should not be swept up in the statement reported by BJP President Somu Veerraju that JSP Supreme Commander Pawan Kalyan would be the JSP-BJP’s top ministerial candidate in 2024. The Saffron Party just wanted to appease the disgruntled JSP activists. The party gave the BJP the prestigious seat of the Tirupati LS as part of an electoral understanding, he added.
To prove his point, Mr. Rao cited the reported testimony of BJP candidate K. Ratna Prabha that the actor-politician would not be the minister’s chief candidate.
He accused the BJP of trying to “communicate” the political situation in Andhra Pradesh by planning a yatra from Kapilatheertham in Tirupati to Ramatheertham on the north coast of Andhra Pradesh, where an idol of Lord Rama had been desecrated.
Mr. Rao also wanted Mr. Pawan Kalyan to use his good offices with the BJP-led government at the center to expedite the CBI investigation into the gutting of the Antarvedi Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy, as the case had made little progress in the last case eight months.