With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu supporting him, Modi is back as the Prime Minister after not getting a majority to take power at the Centre. It is said that Nitish Kumar has requested special status from BJP for Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu for Andhra Pradesh. Here we can see why both of them are asking for special status for their state when the central government is embarrassed by this.
Elections were held in 7 phases for a total of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. The day before yesterday, the votes were counted and the results announced. No party got a single majority in this. A party that wins 272 seats can form a government alone at the centre. But unfortunately no party has majority.
This resulted in a hung parliament. In this case, the BJP is planning to take over the government along with its allies. That means BJP has won 240 constituencies and if we include the constituencies of its allies, there are 293 MPs. This will form a BJP alliance.
Coalition Government at the Centre: A consultation meeting was held at Prime Minister Modi’s residence in this regard yesterday. Bihar Chief Minister and JTU leader Nitish Kumar, former Andhra Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, former Karnataka Chief Minister and JDS leader Kumaraswamy participated in the meeting.
Then they expressed their full support to BJP’s National Democratic Alliance and all accepted Prime Minister Modi as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance. Prime Minister Modi is going to meet the President tomorrow and claim the right to form the government. After that he is said to be resuming as Prime Minister on June 8.
Nitish – Naidu’s request: Meanwhile, even though BJP is in the alliance in the Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu have made some important demands to the BJP. Chandrababu Naidu has 16 MPs and Nitish Kumar 12 MPs. This has forced the BJP to fulfill their demand.
Accordingly, Chandrababu Naidu is asking for the ministerial post of some important departments including Lok Sabha Speaker. Similarly, Nitish Kumar has also set his sights on the post of Speaker and has targeted important posts. Apart from this, it is said that Nitish Kumar has asked for special status for Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu for Andhra Pradesh.
Due to this, the BJP is embarrassed. Since it is difficult to form a government at the center without the support of these two, the BJP is forced to appease them if their demands are not met. It is in this situation that important information has come out about why both of them are asking for special status for their state and what is the background behind it.
Andhra’s Protracted Problem: That is, special status has been demanded for Andhra for a long time. Telangana was carved out of Andhra as a new state in 2014. Hyderabad was then given to Telangana. This caused financial loss to Andhra Pradesh. Thus, Chandrababu Naidu continued to request special status for the development of Andhra Pradesh. Chandrababu Naidu was in the BJP alliance from 2014 to 2018. But the Prime Minister Modi government who ruled at the center did not grant special status. Due to this he left the BJP alliance. He then lost the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in 2019 and lost power.
Now again he formed an alliance with BJP and won the Andhra Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. In this case, the BJP needs the support of Chandrababu Naidu’s 16 MPs in the absence of a single majority. Using this, Chandrababu Naidu wants to get special status for Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Congress has already announced in its election manifesto that special status will be given to Andhra Pradesh. Thus, if BJP does not give special status, Chandrababu Naidu may switch to ‘India’ alliance. Thus BJP is stuck in this dilemma. Similarly, Nitish Kumar is also asking for special status to improve the financial condition of Bihar.
What is Special Status: Here is why Bihar and Andhra are pushing for special status. That is, special status is a status for states facing socio-economic challenges and states facing land-based problems. The central government will grant special status to the states.
These special status states will be allocated more funds for development projects by the central government. In the current context, 11 states including Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Telangana have special status. In this, North-Eastern states have been given top status because of land-related problems and Telangana was formed as a new state.
What is the benefit: Special status will provide various benefits to those particular states. Especially if you get a lot of financial support from the central government. Up to 90 percent central government funding is available for projects implemented with central government funding. But states without special status get only 65 to 75 percent of the funds from the central government.
Similarly, states with special status can carry over unutilized funds in one year to the next financial year. In addition, tax incentives will be provided. In particular, there will be concessions on excise, customs duty, corporate tax, income tax etc. Also, these states will get excess funds from the central government in the budget allocation. Through this, those states can grow faster as compared to other states.
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