Hyderabad: While the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) received invitations from Union ministries inviting Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to participate in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's launch of development programmes in Telangana on April 8 in Hyderabad, sources said the Chief Minister will not attend the Prime Minister’s official programmes.
According to sources, Chandrashekar Rao would not receive Modi at the airport or attend the Prime Minister's official events, especially at this time when the BRS and BJP were embroiled in a bitter political battle over the leakage of TSPSC and SSC question papers and the subsequent arrest of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar in the SSC question paper leakage case.
Instead, Chandrashekar Rao is likely to depute ministers Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Talasani Srinivas Yadav for the Prime Minister’s programmes in the city, party insiders disclosed. Chandrashekar Rao last met the Prime Minister in New Delhi in September 2021, and he has avoided him since then due to a political tussle between the BRS and the BJP ahead of the Huzurabad Assembly bypoll in October 2021.
Since these are the Prime Minister’s official programmes, as per protocol, the Chief Minister must receive the Prime Minister as well as see him off at the airport. However, the Chief Minister has not been receiving the Prime Minister since February 5, 2022, when he arrived in Hyderabad to inaugurate the ‘Statue of Equality’ at Chinna Jeeyar Swamy ashram on the city outskirts and to take part in the diamond jubilee celebrations of ICRISAT. Modi arrived in Hyderabad again in May 2022 to take part in the 20th anniversary celebrations of ISB-Hyderabad. The CMO cited PM's "private visits" as the reason for the Chief Minister not following protocol on both instances.
Further, Modi arrived in Hyderabad again in July 2022 to take part in the BJP's national executive meeting at HICC and addressed a public meeting at Parade Ground, Secunderabad. Since these were party programmes and not official programmes, Rao avoided Modi. However, the Prime Minister arrived in Telangana state again in November 2022 to inaugurate Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited (RFCL) in Ramagundam. Although it was an official programme, the CM skipped the event. The CM deputed Talasani to receive and see off the PM at the airport on all these occasions.
