If the next government at the Centre provides Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh as has been promised under Bifurcation Act, certain additional benefits could be provided to Telangana to prevent any flight of industries and he will certainly provide 100% support to such an initiative, said AP Chief Minister and Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday.

“TRS supported SCS in the Parliament and even KCR’s daughter Kavita spoke in our favour. Now they have changed stance due to Modi and are unnecessarily making an issue. The fact is, the Modi government will not give anything to either AP or TS and incentives given till date are useless,” he said, in a media interaction, before he embarked on campaign across the city.

Whatever industries have come to invest in AP in the last few years despite the odds is because of his “credibility”. He also dismissed the charge that he has been opposing irrigation projects in TS stating that AP was lower riparian State and he has been only seeking equitable distribution of water resources through tribunals especially Godavari river which is flowing into the sea.

“Truth is like fire. It is during my time that several irrigation projects were initiated or completed, be it Madhava Reddy canal, Devadula, Kalwakurthy, Bheema and so on. I went to jail for the first time protesting against Babli project. Several times I offered TS Chief Minister KCR to resolve the issues amicably but his party seems to be in a perpetual agitation mode,” he said.

Mr. Naidu said he was clueless as to why he was being targeted and abused by KCR. “You have to ask him but I am not going to retort in the same breath. TDP is born here and what is KCR minus TDP? Reality is I am the AP CM. I cannot come here. Whatever I have to do I can do in AP only. I can only give a helping hand and offer best wishes here.”

He went on: “I created Cyberabad and an ecosystem for IT growth. I have no regrets leaving for AP. I want to move on because TS and Hyderabad have the potential to become the best in the world because of our vision like road widening, ORR, airport, Hitex, etc. We built hospitals and schools at remote corners of TS.”

“I did not want to fight with KCR every day, hence moved to Vijayawada though Hyderabad is the common capital for 10 years. He is in collusion with BJP, how can he justify that?”, he asked. Mr. Naidu said Grand Alliance with the Congress was formed after KCR spurned his offer to join forces. Now it is necessary to vote for Grand Alliance to put TS development on a “firm footing”.