It looks like the National Democratic Alliance government in Andhra Pradesh led by Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has completely forgotten that Friday, November 1, happens to be the Andhra Pradesh Formation Day.
For the last five years, the state has been celebrating the AP Formation Day on November 1, following a decision taken by the then Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government, as Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956 on the basis of linguistic basis.
Earlier, the then Chandrababu Naidu government had decided to celebrate AP formation Day on June 2, in the aftermath of the state's bifurcation after the bifurcation of combined state in 2014. His argument was that the present form of Andhra Pradesh was created only on June 2, 2014.
Now that Naidu is back in power, he seems to have decided to revert to the original decision of celebrating AP Formation Day again on June 2. So, there were no official celebrations this time on November 1. Naidu himself was busy with the launch of his Deepam scheme at Icchapuram in Srikakulam district.
Interestingly, the TDP leaders unfurled national flag at their head office at Mangalagiri as part of AP Formation Day on Friday. The TDP leaders who paid floral tributes to Potti Sriramulu acknowledged November 1 as the AP formation day, exposing the double standards of Naidu.
The YSR Congress party slammed Naidu for failing to observe the state's formation day on November 1, labelling it as a blatant disrespect toward Potti Sriramulu, who sacrificed his life for a separate Andhra state.
Vellampalli Srinivas and former MLA Malladi Vishnu paid floral tributes to Potti Sriramulu at the YSRCP Central Office and expressed their concerns over the TDP's handling of Andhra Pradesh’s formation legacy.
Malladi Vishnu demanded that Naidu and deputy CM Pawan Kalyan publicly apologize to the people and called for the government to reinstate November 1 as the official State Formation Day and recognize it with respect befitting its historical significance.
