Hyderabad:
The Congress today organised a public meeting in the temple town of Tirupati to demand that the Centre grant special status to Andhra Pradesh, where a party worker tried to immolate himself.
"They (ruling BJP and TDP) said during elections that it is their responsibility. They said they will give special status for not just five years, but 10 years. They said they will do justice (to AP). Now, they say it is not possible," state Congress chief N Raghuveera Reddy said in Tirupati.
The party said in a statement that Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the suicide attempt by B Muni Kama (40) at the rally.
Mrs Gandhi, who spoke to Mr Reddy, appealed to people not to resort to such extreme steps, it said.
Former Union Minister Chiranjeevi said the Congress-led UPA had incorporated several measures, including financial aid to backward districts, in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
It was shameful that the ruling TDP, which shares power with BJP at the Centre and the state, was silent on the demand for special status, he said.
Meanwhile, expressing anguish over the suicide bid at Tirupati rally, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said nobody should take such a step.
Saying that development of the state was his responsibility, Mr Naidu said it was for the Centre to help the state until a level-playing field with others was achieved.
The special status was promised to Seemandhra region (residual Andhra Pradesh) by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the united Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated for creation of Telangana last year.
However, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh stated in the Parliament recently in reply to a question by a member from Bihar said that the special status would not be given to any state any more.
40-year-old Congress worker B Muni Kama is battling for life after attempting self-immolation at the public meeting held, police said.
Kama doused himself with kerosene and set himself on fire a few minutes before the commencement of the meeting near the Municipal Corporation Office.
Andhra Pradesh needed to achieve several things with the help of the Union Government, such as grant of special status, completion of Polavaram irrigation project, construction of the new capital, bridging the revenue deficit following the bifurcation, a separate railway zone and establishment of central educational institutions, Naidu said.
TDP MLC G Muddukrishnama Naidu blamed Congress for not including the promise of special status in the reorganisation act, so as to make it binding on the Centre. The opposition party should take responsibility for the man's self-immolation bid because it happened at its own rally, he said.
The YSR Congress which would stage a sit-in in Delhi on August 10 demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh said it had no political motives in organising dharna in Delhi, but only wanted to take the issue to the national capital.
"When the concerned minister categorically stated in the Parliament that the question of giving special status to Andhra Pradesh does not arise, none of the TDP MPs or the TDP ministers protested," senior YSRCP leader Botsa Satyanarayana said.
Only the party leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had taken up the issue consistently with the Centre, he claimed.