Andhra Intellectual Forum and Pratyeka Hoda Sadhan Samiti leaders threatened that they were planning for series of programs to put pressure on centre to get the special category status(SCS) accorded to Andhra Pradesh. Leaders of the forum Chalasani Srinnivas and Karem Sivaji said they would not allow the BJP leaders roam around in villages after November 2, if special status not announced.

The leaders welcomed the statement of Hindupur TDP MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna on the special category status. Talking to media on Sunday Balakrishna said denial of special status amounts to assault on self-respect of Andhra people. Stating that he still harbored hope that centre would accord special status, Balakrishan, brother in law of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, warned the centre of dire consequences if union government did not keep its word on the promise.

“Every MLA should take cue from Balakrishna and fight for the special status,” they said and added that they would release their program of action. Meanwhile, Karem Sivaji released the CD of a song which movie star Sivaji wrote on special status and sung.

Meanwhile, K. Ramakrishna, state secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI) wrote to Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu, urging him to convene a meeting of all political parties and public organizations to discuss the special status issue. The CPI State secretary said people were unhappy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech delivered at the foundation laying ceremony on October 22, at Amaravati. “People expected that PM Modi would announce special status to AP. His speech dissatisfied the people of AP. More so, your [Venkaiah Naidu] statements on special status were perplexing and disturbing people,” he wrote in the letter. The BJP, which promised that it would accord special status to AP as soon as it came to power, was pretending that the issue was pending with NITI Ayog, he pointed out.