Rahul Gandhi targets PM for not fulfiling promies to AP

Congress President Rahul Gandhi Sunday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 'not fulfiling' the promises to Andhra Pradesh and YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on alleged corruption, even as he flayed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over 'mismanagement' of the state.

At the same time, Rahul repeated his promise of according Special Category Status and building a strong AP the moment the Congress came to power at the Centre.

Special category status was the central point of his campaign rallies in the two places even as he touched upon other national issues like the proposed Nyay scheme, attacks on dalits and minorities, making doing business easy for youngsters, economic frauds, farm loan waiver and education reforms.

You know the mismanagement that has taken place in AP.

You know the state is struggling, the Congress president said, addressing his first election campaign meeting in Vijayawada in the morning.

He also spoke about the 'corruption' of Jagan Reddy, without elaborating.

At the campaign rally at Kalyanadurg in Anantapur district late in the evening, Rahul spoke about the travails of farmers in the state, particularly in this parched district, and said 600 farmers had committed suicide in the last two years.

Cultivable land reduced by half in Anantapuramu district, he pointed out, but avoided directly mentioning the Telugu Desam Party government.

On the special category status (SCS) issue, however, the Congress chief found fault with the TDP as well for 'failing to exert pressure' on the Centre.

Five years have gone-by and the current Prime Minister did not fulfil the promises made by the people of the country.

And it is sad that neither of the two parties in AP had put pressure on the PM to take this decision.

TDP was in alliance with Narendra Modi and they should have put pressure on him and forced him to give SCS, Rahul remarked.

And I understand that Jaganmohan Reddy has a lot of cases on him.

I understand that the Prime Minister can put a lot of pressure on Reddy. But this is not the question of an individual. This is the question of the future of people of AP, he added.

He observed that SCS was important for the future of AP and that was what people of India owed to the state.

There should be no confusion that the moment the Congress comes to power in 2019, one of the first decisions we will take will be giving SCS to AP.

Because we are absolutely convinced that AP needs SCS, the Congress chief said.

Criticizing the Prime Minister for 'failing to honour' the promises made to AP (post-bifurcation), Gandhi recalled that Modi himself promised SCS and also said the state needed a world-class capital.

Truth is neither did he give SCS, Central University, Kadapa steel plant or the Polavaram project. What has been promised by PM has to be delivered. We will give it to you, he promised.

The Congress president also assured to positively look into the demand for granting Scheduled Caste status to the Vaddera community and Scheduled Tribe status to the Valmiki community.

He promised to take up categorization of the SCs in an amicable manner.