Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Thursday to press the Centre to fulfil various assurances, including the grant of Special Category Status to the State.

He will leave Tirupati for Delhi by a special aircraft on Thursday morning on a two-day visit. The Chief Minister could meet Mr. Modi in the evening, according to AP Government’s Special Representative in Delhi K. Rammohan Rao.

Besides the PM, Mr. Naidu is scheduled to meet Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Water Resour-ces Minister Uma Bharti and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday. A presentation on transforming Visakhapatnam into a ‘Smart City’ will be made by an agency during the meeting with Ms. Sitharaman.

On Friday, he will interact with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union minister for Road Transport, Shipping and Highways, Nitin Gadkari and Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, among others.

Besides Special Category Status, the other assurances given by the Centre to provide financial package and tax incentives to backward north coastal and Rayalaseema districts would be taken up by Mr. Naidu. He would also remind the Centre about the long-pending request of Andhra Pradesh to fully meet the budget deficit of the State of Rs.16,000 crore this year and also for the subsequent two years. The funding for building essential infrastructure in the new capital is also expected to figure during the Chief Minister’s meetings with the Prime Minister and other Central Ministers.

Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and Chief Secretray I. Y. Krishna Rao are also accompanying Mr. Naidu to Delhi.