Putting aside the longstanding demand for Special Category Status (SCS), Andhra Pradesh and Bihar Chief Ministers Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar welcomed the allocations made for their states in the Union budget. Both the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by Naidu and Janata Dal (United) led by Nitish are partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led Union government.

Chandrababu Naidu praised the Union Budget 2024-25 presented by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for “recognising the needs of the state.” The budget is “progressive and confidence-boosting,” he said, expressing his gratitude to the Union Finance Minister for recognising the needs of Andhra Pradesh and “focusing on a capital, Polavaram, industrial nodes and development of backward areas in AP.”

Like Naidu, Nitish also praised the budgetary assistance, brushing aside concerns of special category status. "I have continuously spoken for special status. I asked for either a special status or a special package. In keeping with my demands, they have announced aid for a lot of things. We were speaking of special status and a lot of people said that the provision for special status has been done away with much earlier. So, instead of that, aid should be given for helping Bihar. They have now started doing so,” Nitish said.

The Finance Minister in the Budget 2024-25 speech vowed Rs 15,000 crores along with an additional amount in future years for Andhra Pradesh’s proposed capital Amaravati. Funds for Polavaram irrigation project along with industrial development funds in Kopparthi node in Visakhapatnam- Chennai industrial corridor and Oravackal node in Hyderabad-Bengaluru industrial corridor were also announced.

“An additional allocation will be provided this year towards capital investment for economic growth. Grants for backward regions of Rayalaseema, Prakasam, North Coastal Andhra will be provided,” the Finance Minister had said.

Bihar received an industrial support load at Gaya on the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor. “This corridor will catalyze industrial development of the eastern region and the load at Gaya will be a good model for developing ancient centers into future centers of modern economy,” Sitharaman said.

Bihar also got a slew of road connectivity projects in the 2024-25 Budget with funds being put aside for Patna-Purnia Expressway, Buxar-Bagalpur Expressway, Bodhgaya, Rajgiri, Vaishali and Darbanga spurs as well as an additional tool of Rs 26,000 crores in bridge over river ganga over Buxar. Additionally, the state also received power projects including setting up of a 2400 megawatt power plant at Pirpainti will be taken up at cost of Rs 21,400 crore rupees

“New airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar will be constructed. Further the request of the Bihar government for external assistance from multilateral development banks will be expedited,” she said.

Also Read: Budget: Andhra to get Rs 15000 crore for Amaravati, no special status

On Monday, July 22, MoS Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that the Inter-Ministerial Group had discussed the demand for SCS to Bihar in its meeting, but based on the existing criteria Bihar did not qualify.’