Here’s Why Chandrababu Naidu Gave Up The Demand For Special Category Status

From the time he became the first Chief Minister of divided Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu was insisting on a special category status (SCS) for his state. So it was a surprise to many when he decided to give up the demand and accept whatever the central government offered.

When the centre finally declared that there will be special assistance measures but no SCS, Naidu tried to take relief in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s promise that the state will get the same monetary benefits in the form of externally-aided projects as it would have got with an SCS.

The opposition parties criticised Naidu, with the main opposition party leader Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) going as far as accusing him of compromising with the centre to wiggle out of a "cash for vote" case in Telangana.

“Mr Chandrababu Naidu may have compromised for his selfish interests, but 50 million people of the state will achieve special status...”

Naidu countered the accusations by saying:

“It was Jaganmohan Reddy who compromised on the state's interests during bifurcation of the state to get bail…”

Naidu must be pleased with one of the measures announced by Jaitley, wherein the centre will provide the complete funding for the Polavaram irrigation project with the state government being its executing authority. This project was first conceived in the 1940s and, as per the 2011 estimates, will cost Rs 16,000 crore ($2.4 billion).

The project is expected to become Andhra's lifeline, with an irrigation potential of 7,20,000 acres. Naidu intends to complete the project by 2018 and also divert surplus water to the Krishna basin, which currently gets water from the Srisailam project located in Kurnool district of Rayalaseema, a drought-prone backward region. By completing Polavaram, Naidu hopes to fulfil his promise to provide Srisailam water to Rayalaseema, which will help Naidu to effectively counter the opposition.

Naidu seems to have been aware of his political compulsions and the state's poor finances and, having the mind of a wily politician, decided to go ahead as he has no alternative in this situation.

But the decision seemed to have angered even allies; actor Pawan Kalyan, who had campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party-Telugu Desam Party alliance in the 2014 elections, termed the package as "rotten laddus".

At a public meeting at Kakinada, the actor vowed to launch a three-phase struggle to achieve SCS. But so far there has been no follow-up action on this, which triggered speculation that the actor has no firm plans to take up the issue. The opposition may find it difficult to launch a mass movement against Naidu and sustain it.