Till the other day, special category status to Andhra Pradesh was a buzz word in the state politics. Not a single day was passed without one party or the other raising the issue in the run-up to the general elections in Andhra Pradesh.
In fact, the political parties have given the impression that special category status to AP would be the main election plank for all the parties in the elections.
It was on this issue that Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu had pulled out of the NDA in March 2018.
But when the electioneering actually started early this month following the announcement of election schedule, parties seem to have forgotten the special category status which ceases to be an issue in the elections.
YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who talked about the issue all through his padayatra, has pushed it to the backburner.
Except on one or two occasions, Jagan has not been raising the special category status issue at all. He is focusing more on attacking Naidu and highlighting his Navaratnas, rather than the special category status.
On the other hand, Naidu, too, has ignored the demand and is concentrating on his welfare schemes and of course, attacking Jagan, his alleged criminal background and corruption.
So is the case with Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan who claimed that he was the only person to champion the cause of special category status.
While the BJP leaders have any way been ignoring the demand, the Congress party which has taken up the issue afresh is also not raising it at all during the campaign.
Interestingly, even the people have stopped discussing about special category status, which everybody thought would become an emotive issue in the elections.
By the way, leaders like Andhra Intellectuals Forum founder and presently chairman of Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samiti Chalasani Srinivas, who used to make hue and cry over the status issue, has now gone silent!
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