Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, on Saturday, November 11, assured that the Congress would return to power in Andhra Pradesh in the near future. The Congress leader was visiting Vijayawada along with Congress Working Committee member N Raghuveera Reddy. “Nothing is permanent in politics. Today, you may not have the numbers, but the situation will change when the Congress party comes to power at the Centre and will extend its full support for strengthening the party unit in Andhra Pradesh,” Shivakumar said, according to The Hindu.
The Deputy CM told Andhra Congress leaders and cadres that the party’s prospects in the state would improve. The Congress saw its decline in Andhra Pradesh following the decision to bifurcate the state in 2014. Since then, the party has not managed to improve its performance.
Motivating the leaders to build the party from the grassroots level, DK Shivakumar said, “The state unit of the party may not have even a single representative either in the Assembly or in Parliament today, but this is not a permanent feature. There is a sunrise after sunset. That is the law of nature.”
He also promised to give Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh if the party formed the government in the Union. “When Congress is voted to power at the Centre, Andhra Pradesh will be given the Special Category Status as promised in Parliament at the time of state bifurcation,” The New Indian Express quoted him as saying.
He said that only a party with a national outlook could develop the state of Andhra Pradesh and not regional parties like YSRCP and TDP, which are dependent on Union government funds. He dismissed the YSRCP and TDP as “family parties.”
Speaking about the Assembly elections in the neighbouring state of Telangana, he said there was a clear wave in favour of the Congress party. He said the Congress would return to power in Telangana and the Union.
