Thursday 22 October 2015

Naidu invites Telangana CM for Amaravathi foundation ceremony

Hyderabad: The long and bitter spell of political animosity between the chief ministers of the two Telugu States, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhar Rao respectively, took back seat for a change when the former called on the latter to extend an invitation for the foundation stone laying ceremony of AP's new capital city -- Amaravathi -- on October 22.

The two leaders, who have been at loggerheads ever since the bifurcation of AP to form Telangana State in June last year, set aside their differences and put on smiles and indulged in friendly banter when Naidu called on KCR, as the Telangana chief minister is known, at his official residence late Sunday evening.


This is the first visit Naidu has made to KCR residence since the bitter political war broke between the two states, and the two have been avoiding bumping into each other even in social functions.

Naidu flew down from Tirupati where he performed his grandson's 'Annaprasana' (first rice feeding) ritual. The one-on-one meeting between the two chief ministers lasted around 55 minutes and saw a lot of friendly banter. The meet comes in the backdrop of the cash-for-votes scam, in which Telangana TDP MLA A Revanth Reddy was caught allegedly bribing a Telangana legislator to make him vote for the TDP-BJP combine in the Telangana legislative council elections.

While the TRS accused Naidu of being the chief accused in the scam, releasing an audio tape of his phone conversation with nominated Elvis Stephenson via the media, Naidu hit back claiming that his phone was being illegally tapped by Telangana.Following Naidu's formal invite, KCR promised to attend the Amaravati ceremony, putting to rest speculation that he would not participate in the function in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chief guest. Several chief ministers from various states, union ministers and senior politicians from different parties are expected to attend the ceremony, which is expected to be an extravaganza with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government leaving no stone unturned to make it a memorable affair.

KCR reportedly informed Naidu that he would drive down to the venue after an overnight stay at Suryapet in Nalgonda district in Telangana, which is close to the AP border. The Telangana CM said he would go first to the famous Kanakadurga temple in Vijayawada before making his way to the venue.

Touching upon some of the issues faced by the two States, Naidu told his Telangana counterpart that it would be beneficial for both States if they worked together towards the Amaravati-Hyderabad-Mumbai and Hyderabad-Kurnool-Bengaluru industrial corridors on par with the Delhi-Mumbai, Bangalore-Chennai-Visakhapatnam and Delhi-Kolkata industrial corridors.

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