‘BJP, TDP let down people on SCS’

Leaders of the Left parties and other organisations have expressed their resolve to intensify the struggle for Special Category Status (SCS) and other bifurcation promises at a public meeting on Thursday.

Addressing the meeting CPI(M) State secretariat member Y. Venkateswara Rao said BJP and TDP together let down the people of Andhra Pradesh. The BJP went back on its promises made at the time of election.

The meeting was organised to mark the conclusion of nine-day ‘Maha Padayatra’ of CPI(M) demanding SCS, Railway zone for Visakhapatnam and package for Rayalaseema.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao said the movement for SCS was only a part of the bigger struggle against the BJP ‘designs’ of shrinking the rights of the States. He said demonetisation and GST implementation were part of it. With diverse States with various levels of development, the principle of one country one tax would not work, he said. BJP was afraid of the ‘no confidence’ motion as its failures would be discussed in the open., he said.

Recalling the struggles made during the last four years, Vibhajana Hamila Sadhana Samiti president Chalasani Srinivas said after arrests in Vijayawada they were not even kept in one police station and were moved around in vehicles for 14 hours.

‘United struggle’

The Chief Minister was now talking about united struggle for SCS. He did not even form a committee on the assurances given all along, he said. The struggle was taken to Delhi and several parties, including AAP and Congress, supported it. Mr. Srinivas said a more powerful mode of agitation would be chalked out.

CPI leader J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy said the Chief Minister should convince the parties that stayed away from the recent meeting and instil confidence.