Venkaiah Naidu to quit politics in 2020, says painful to leave 'mother BJP'

Hyderabad: NDA’s Vice-Presidential candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that he would quit public life in January 2020 and retire to his village to do public service.

His term as Vice-President will last till August 2022. Mr Naidu turns 70 on July 1, 2019. “Long back I had taken a decision to quit politics in January 2020 and go back to my native village and take up some social service activities,” he said. He said that this decision had been informed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  He was speaking at a “Meet and Greet” programme at Hyderabad on Friday.

‘Painful to leave mother-BJP’
Mr Venkaiah Naidu said he was certain that Narendra Modi would continue as Prime Minister after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He said that BJP was like his mother and it was very painful for him to leave the party.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu said that BJP had made him AP state president at a young age and later when he became Union minister, the party had made him its national president. He said in the 1983 Assembly elections, he had been elected from the BJP. 

After the elections, the then Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao had invited him to join the Telugu Desam and promised to give him a Cabinet berth but he had rejected the offer.

He said that in his long political life he had never faced any pressure from family members. He said he had asked his children to stay away from politics. 

Reacting to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s allegations about favouring his children, Mr Venkaiah Naidu said that he had never interfered in his children’s businesses. 

He said that such allegations were inescapable in public life. Condemning the allegations Mr Venkaiah Naidu said, “Those who are in mud, they cannot bear to see somebody wearing a white shirt and dhoti.”