N Chandrababu Naidu meets Narendra Modi, but fails to talk

Vijayawada: AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s Gujarat tour has sparked some interesting discussions. Though all Chief Ministers of various states were invited to the mega international event ‘Textile India 2017’, very few showed up. 

It was clear from the start that Mr Naidu was bent on meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was ready to use any trick in the book to do so, in the light of the YSR Congress getting increasingly close to the BJP. 

Even from TS, only textile minister K.T. Rama Rao attended the programme which did not have any significance except that it was the PM’s home state. 

Host state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and CMs of two other along with Mr Naidu attended the programme. 

According to sources, though the state government had sent its textile minister K. Atchennaidu for the programme, Mr Naidu too decided to attend it. 

It is almost a year since the Modi-Naidu one-to-one took place. Though Mr Naidu requested an appointment with the PM in May before he left for his US tour, it did not materialise for various reasons. 

Later, YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s meeting with the PM, and the BJP selecting the YSRC to sign and support the fourth set of nominations of its Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, paved the way for discussions on the widening gap between BJP and TD.

Sources said that Mr Naidu is waiting for an opportunity to meet the PM. 

In this context, he saw the ‘Textile India 2017’ as an opportunity to meet the PM. 

He felt it would be a good chance to extend goodwill. 

A CMO official said that the state government had spent ' 8 crore and reserved space in the programme to exhibit and promote textile products of AP. 

He mentioned the importance given to AP by Union textile minister Smriti Irani who personally invited Mr Naidu to attend the programme.