Andhra Pradesh has been demanding a Special Category State (SCS) status from Centre ever since it was decided to carve out Telangana along with capital city Hyderabad. Ramchandra Rao, a Rajya Sabha member representing Congress moved a private member Bill seeking special status to Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh meets only one of the five guidelines to grant a special category. The post-General Election scenarioWhen Dr. Singh spoke in the Rajya Sabha about SCS status to Andhra Pradesh, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu was then in Opposition. Eventually eight more States were added to the list — Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.

Source: The Hindu August 02, 2016 12:00 UTC