VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy flew to New Delhi on Thursday and is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to discuss matters of central funds for AP and the state’s Centrally-aided developmental projects.
Leader of Opposition Telugu Desam N. Chandrababu Naidu was in Delhi on Wednesday and held talks with BJP top brass including Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda. There yet was no clarity on what transpired between the two sides vis-a-vis the upcoming polls in AP.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, who left for Delhi from Gannavaram airport, would stay in his official residence at 1 Janpath in the national capital. He is scheduled to meet Modi on Friday and discuss state subjects as also the present political scenario in AP.
Meanwhile, sources in the government said the Chief Minister would take up the Special Category Status, the Vizag Steel Plant issue, funding for completion of the Polavaram project, AP’s pending issues with the Jalashakti ministry, the pending payment for the power supplied to Telangana state from June 2014 to June 2017, the pending Central funds, the increased allocation under national food security for additional free ration to 56 lakh additional families in the state, funding for new medical colleges and the pending issues vis-a-vis the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
But political circles hotly debated the Chief Minister’s visit to the national capital a day after the TD president met BJP leaders there as part of his bid to rejoin the NDA.
It is learnt that the Chief Minister would meet Union ministers and several BJP leaders apart from Modi. Discussions among them would also centre about the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in AP.
Notably, Naidu spoke to the media before meeting Shah, claiming that AP’s development was more important to him than politics. But after concluding his midnight meeting with Shah, Naidu spoke no word to the media. This hinted that he got no positive response vis-à-vis a BJP-TD alliance for the coming polls.
Political analysts noted that AP was the only state where the ruling YSRC and the main opposition Telugu Desam supported the BJP at the national level. “Though Naidu attempted to undercut Modi in the past, the saffron party might not keep a distance with the TD. For, TD’s support might be needed for the BJP in future,” they felt.
