Leading Telugu actor and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan said on Sunday that he will support any political party fighting for grant of special status to Andhra Pradesh.
He tweeted this after the Congress party invited him to a public meeting scheduled to be held in Guntur on Sunday evening to demand special category status for the state.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and Communist Party of India General Secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy, among others, will address the meeting.
The actor-politician said he would not be able to make it to the Guntur meeting due to the short notice. He conveyed his best wishes to Raghuveera Reddy, the President of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the Congress party.
Pawan said all parties should come on one platform when it comes to taking on the Centre for the promised special status for Andhra Pradesh.
The actor, who had campaigned for the BJP-TDP alliance in the 2014 elections, fell out with them last year and has since been targeting the BJP for going back on its promise to accord special status to the state and the TDP for accepting a special package instead of the special status.
Pawan, younger brother of Congress leader and former Union Minister K. Chiranjeevi, has already announced that Jana Sena will contest the 2019 elections in both Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The Congress also reportedly invited Opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who also decided to skip the event.
Speaking at the rally, Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for going back on a promise made in Tirupati temple to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
Gandhi said special status would have benefited the state to the tune of thousands of crores as 90 per cent of the funds coming from the Centre would have been in the form of grants.
Stating that the promise of special status was made by Manmohan Singh in his capacity as the Prime Minister of the country, he said it was the right of the people of Andhra Pradesh.
He promised that granting special status would be the first task of the government of Congress and its allies in 2019.
IANS inputs