Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu claims that the Centre is conspiring to take over the functioning of the historic temple in Tirupati. Chandrababu, while addressing a public meeting in Chittoor, where he went to participate in the sixth day of "Nava Nirmana Deeksha", said he will not let any conspiracy succeed.
We will not let any conspiracy against the Tirumala temple be successful. The Centre tried to take the temple under their control. We will not let such conspiracies turn into reality. I survived an extremist attack in 2003 only because of Lord Balaji's blessings. I won't let the sanctity of the temple of Lord Balaji tampered.
He further went on to critisise the Modi government for backtracking on thier word to provide Andhra Pradesh with the Special Category Status (SCS) that they were earlier state has been demanding.
"The Central government has betrayed our state in the matter of Special Category Status. Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged SCS to Andhra Pradesh at the feet of Lord Balaji. I am a senior politician. As a Chief Minister, I went to Delhi and asked for special status and funds for state development. But they did not give it. Instead, they betrayed us," he added.
The chief minister held "Grama Darshini" program in Chandramakulapalle village, where he personally interacted with villagers and later addressed a public meeting at Valasapalle village. After the public meeting, the chief minister went to Madanapalle Masjid to take part in Namaz and later he attended Iftar party organised by the state government at Madanapalle town.
In March, the CM announced the resignation of two of his party members from the Union Cabinet following Arun Jaitley's refusal to grant the special status to AP. He also announced that the TDP would pull out of the coalition with the NDA.
Andhra Pradesh has reportedly been demanding a special status since bifurication, where it lost the capital city of Hyderabad to Telengana. As a result, the state suffered an economic deficit which is one of the parameters for a state to be granted special status.
[With inputs from ANI]
