Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy Tuesday expressed gratitude to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for promising in the party's manifesto that it would procure full statehood for the Union Territory, if elected to power after the Lok Sabha polls.
The manifesto was released in Delhi today by AICC.
Addressing reporters at the party office here, Narayanasamy said, "the specific announcement in the manifesto that the Congress would procure statehood for Puducherry now a Union Territory shows that the party and its leader have concern for the welfare of the people here."
He said, "the demand for statehood had been raised for years together as the present constitutional status of Union Territory had been standing in the way of getting sufficient grants from the Centre and most of the time the plea had fallen on deaf ears."