By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 8, 2018: Buoyed by the resignation of two union ministers belonging to Telugu Desam Party [TDP] of Andhra Pradesh on the issue of special category state status to it, the ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha will once again step up its long standing demand for special status to the state.

If the NDA government led by Narendra Modi succumbs to pressure from AP chief minister and TDP leader, Chandrababu Naidu, the BJD will intensify its demand fo special category state stuatus to Odisha, according to BJD’s leader in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab.

Mahatab on Thursday said that the Naveen Patnaik government has been demanding for special category state status since long. “The demand has not been pressed by Odisha for sometime due to the 14th Finance Commission. However, granting the status to one state and neglecting another is not fair. Any bias of the Central government in this matter will not be tolerated,” he added.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had recently reiterated the demand during a meeting with NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar at the Secretariat in Bhubaneswar.

In fact, earlier Patnaik had raised this issue several times at various forums but to no avail.

The ruling TDP of Andhra Pradesh threatened to snap its ties with the NDA as its demand of a special category state has been rejected. However, after Modi spoke to Naidu over telephone for 20 minutes, TDP has not snapped its tie with NDA.