New Delhi: When Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the capital today, he was promised full support on his wish list for the Seemandhra regions, which will form the residual Andhra Pradesh when the state of Telangana is born next week.
"We will honour all commitments made during passage of Andhra Pradesh Bifurcation Bill. We have already started working on it," Jaitley told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Naidu.
The new states will come into existence on June 2. On a question related with special category status, Jaitley said that the matter will be first discussed by full Planning Commission and then taken to the National Development Council.
"There is no capital, no infrastructure, no institutions in Seemandhra. Mr Modi (Prime Minister) and the finance minister promised us to help build the state,'' concurred Mr Naidu.
Mr Naidu is set to be the chief minister of the residual Andhra Pradesh. His TDP partnered the BJP in the elections. It won a majority in the assembly election with 108 out of 175 seats. The partners have also won 17 seats in the Lok Sabha. With 16 seats, the TDP is the BJP's second largest ally in Parliament.
The BJP had, during the discussion in Parliament on the Telangana bill, had demanded that the special category status for Seemandhra be extended to 10 years.
