Chandrababu Naidu, KCR yet to congratulate each other

Hyderabad: TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu who won Telangana and Seemandhra respectively are spending long hours fielding congratulatory messages and visitors at their homes in the upmarket Jubilee Hills locality. They are not on good terms with each other, though, and have not congratulated each other so far.

TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu will become Chief Ministers of their respective states on June 2, but they have not met or even spoken on the telephone. But they will be present at each other’s swearing-in ceremonies, it is learnt.

The animosity of course stems from them being at loggerheads over the division of the state. However, now that the division is a reality, they will have to meet frequently, particularly in the first year, to sort out a number of issues, including the allotment of employees to the two states, which is snowballing into a major controversy

Interestingly, Mr Rao served in the Chandrababu Naidu Cabinet for some time before disassociating from the TD to float the Telangana Rastra Samiti in 2001. Mr Naidu claimed several times during the recent election campaign that Mr Rao was his sishya (pupil) in politics. They unleashed a bitter tirade against each other during the campaign and this has strained relations even further.

They don’t see eye to eye on the allotment of government employees, especially the Secretariat employees, between the two states based on population criteria. Mr Rao opposes the unilateral allotment of Seemandhra employees to Telangana and Mr Naidu has decided to support it, stating that it is provisional and not permanent and hence one need not panic.