Vijayawada: Senior Congress leader Botcha Satyanarayana here on Saturday blamed both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Telugu Desam Party for leaving Andhra Pradesh in the lurch. Speaking to media persons, Satyanarayana alleged that the two parties had betrayed the people’s trust.

He recalled that BJP M Venkaiah Naidu, who is now Union Minister for Urban Development, demanded on the floor of Rajya Sabha that the then UPA government agree to accord Special Status for 10 years when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to ensure that State secured benefit only five years. However, after coming to power, he said the BJP leaders had now kept dodging the issue.

He said Union government had in the past accorded Special Status to 14 states. He wondered what came in the way for the Centre to give the benefit to the State. He said executive decision was sufficient for according Special Status to any State. Saying that the NDA government, led by the BJP, had been allotting funds to reap political gains, Satyanarayana cited the example of Bihar securing financial support from the Centre.