At the time of separating Telangana, the one main promise made to Andhra Pradesh was Special Category Status. The Congress which brought this up lost power at the Centre and lost its political existence in AP. In the 2019 elections, CM Jagan Reddy made Special Status a key issue and greatly embarrassed the TDP. After coming to power, Jagan Reddy lost no time to say that his Government would not bring pressure on the Centre but it would go on requesting for Special Status.
Now ahead of the Parliament session, once again, the Special Status became one issue that both the YCP and the TDP were insisting on. Vijay Sai Reddy said that their party made a strong plea to the Modi regime to grant the Special Status. But the TDP MPs criticised that the YCP did not even dare to raise the topic in front of the Prime Minister.
Analysts say that more knotty issues were there to say that the Central Government would fulfill any promise but not the Special Status. Firstly, both the national parties, the Congress and the BJP, became politically irrelevant in AP just as they have been in Tamil Nadu. While TN is dominated by Dravidian politics, AP is dominated by caste considerations. So, as long as the national parties would not have a stake in AP, they would not bother about its Special Status.
The second reason was that both the YCP and the TDP were not able to bring pressure on the Centre. The YCP’s support in Rajya Sabha became crucial for the BJP but it was not demanding the Special Status for obvious reasons. At the same time, the TDP was also not able to expose this along similar reasons. TN parties might fight between themselves but they become united for their State’s cause. That situation is not possible in AP.