Summary:
Visakhapatnam: The convener of the AP Special Status Forum, Chalasani Srinivas, extended support to a protest slated to be held in New Delhi by the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu. Apart from this, the development package that was supposed to be provided to the regions of north Andhra and Rayalaseema were never given,” Srinivas alleged.Srinivas further added that the BJP was turning a blind eye towards AP, mainly because the state was not of political interest to the party. He further urged the people of AP to give Prime Minister Narendar Modi the cold shoulder on his tour to the state.Addressing members of the media here on Saturday, Srinivas criticised the Union Government’s attitude towards Andhra Pradesh and the ‘miserly’ attitude of the Union Government.“We have been urging the Union Government to provide a railway zone to AP so that we can have more trains, but our age-old demand has fallen on deaf ears. Threatening that the people of AP would topple the BJP’s position in Odisha, he said, “We will campaign against the BJP and turn the substantial number of Telugu voters in south and central Odisha to vote against the BJP.”Stating that PM Modi, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley were unsympathetic towards the state, Srinivas noted that members of the old guard, such as Rajnath Singh and Uma Bharti, were supportive of the Andhra cause..