Andhra Pradesh will get special status if Congress is voted to power in 2019

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday addressed a rally in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool wherein he announced that the state will get a special status if Congress is voted to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Gandhi stated that the Congress "has a very old relationship with Andhra Pradesh".

"When the state was divided, the then PM, Manmohan Singh, made certain commitments to the people of Andhra Pradesh. The commitment of PM was that the state would be given special status for a period of 5 years," Gandhi noted.

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"When this commitment was made, the current Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and his party (Bharatiya Janata Party) said that is not good enough, Andhra Pradesh should get special status for 10 years. It has been four years since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, and he has not taken one step forward to the commitment that the government of India made to the people of Andhra Pradesh... All the promises made to the people of Andhra Pradesh have been broken by Narendra Modi," Gandhi added.

The Congress president also claimed that Prime Minister Modi "does not understand that the promise to Andhra Pradesh was made by (former) Prime Minister of India (Manmohan Singh)."