Hyderabad: After brief period of strategic silence on AP politics, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao spoke on Andhra Pradesh a day before the conclusion of election campaign. Though everybody was expecting some bold statement from KCR on AP politics on last day of campaign, the TRS supremo exerted his support to the demand for Special Category Status (SCS) by Andhra Pradesh. Will it benefit YSRCP?

“TDP and Jana Sena have been campaigning highlighting the need of special status to AP, while criticizing TRS for blocking this need. Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan also spoke about under current friendship of KCR and YS Jaganmohan Reddy. In early phase of poll campaign, KCR spoke positively about YSRCP, but immediately stopped his support after observing backlash from Andhraites. KCR has realized that if he speaks about supporting YSRCP that’ll boomarng to him as it spoils the winning chances for YSRCP. This is similar to Chandrababu Naidu’s campaigning in Telangana and it boomeranged for TDP as it benefited TRS. If KCR talks positively about YSRCP, this would benefit TDP. That’s the reason, KCR maintained silence during the course of election campaigning and spoke positively about special status to AP and extended his support to this cause on last leg of poll campaign. The aim of breaking his silence by announcing support to special status is to make Andhra voters positive towards YSRCP,” observes a senior political analyst.

Speaking at a public meeting in Vikarabad on Monday, KCR said: “We’re not against people of Andhra Pradesh, but certainly against N Chandrababu Naidu as he created problems and continuing to do so. We would like to develop Telangana and also want AP to prosper. The TRS government would like to support the demand of AP for special status. We have also no opposition to Polavaram project. My ideal is that both the Telugu states should prosper without causing troubles to each other.”