Nitish Kumar backs Chandrababu Naidu’s demand for special status to Andhra Pradesh, seeks SCS for Bihar as well

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday backed the demand of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for special category status to the southern state. Supporting the demand of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief over the demand at the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting, the Janata Dal United (JDU) leader demanded the same status for Bihar, where he is in power in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Naidu also got the backing of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue of 2011 census being adopted by the 15th Finance Commission. The TDP chief also made a request to the Centre to “not penalise the performing states”.

Notably, the TDP chief had walked out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre over special category status to Andhra Pradesh. He had accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of not fulfilling its promise of providing the status to the state.

Inaugurating Mahanadu, the TDP's annual conclave, Naidu had said that the Centre had reneged on its promise to grant Andhra Pradesh Special Category status and to implement the AP Reorganisation Act. Naidu accused the BJP of betraying the people of AP and trying to create law and order problems in the state in collusion with the YSRCP.

The TDP had in March 2018 withdrawn support from the NDA government over the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to the state.