CM Jaganmohan meets Home Minister Amit Shah, raises special status for Andhra

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital and raised the issue of according the special category status to the state as well as amicable settlement of all contentious issues with neighbouring Telangana.

During the meeting, that lasted for around 15 minutes, the newly appointed Andhra Chief Minister also informed the Home Minister about the issues of sharing of river waters and division of assets and liabilities among others between the two Telugu-speaking states.

"I took an appointment with Home Minister today (Friday) evening to try and prevail on him, to also soften PM's heart on special category status... what we will definitely be asking for in tomorrow's (Saturday's) NITI Aayog meeting," Jagan told media after the meeting.

"The agenda of my visit was tomorrow's NITI Aayog meeting. Tomorrow we will be presenting our case to the NITI Aayog, which is chaired by the Prime Minister," Jagan was quoted as saying by IANS.

When asked about the reports that Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker's post will be offered to his YSR Congress Party, Jagan said, "First of all there is nothing offered. We haven't asked, neither any proposal of that sort have come from any quarter. So please don't speculate these kind of things."

According to reports, Jagan is also likely to meet Union Finance Minister apart from few other union ministers taking up the issues related to the welfare of the state.

Earlier, the YSRCP chief met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the issue of according the special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The SCS is a major demand of the YSRCP and Jagan, during his election campaign, had said he would support the party at the national level which promises to grant the status to Andhra Pradesh.

The YSRCP stormed to power in Andhra Pradesh with a landslide victory in assembly polls.

Jagan's party has won 151 of the 175 assembly and 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, the elections for which were held on April 11.