Chandrababu warms up to Modi

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday gave clearer hints that his party might be seeking some kind of a tie-up with the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the BJP.

The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister shared a platform with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at a function in the national capital during the day.

It was not just sharing the dais with Modi; Naidu was liberal in his praise for the Vajpayee government while also very sharp in his criticism of the incumbent UPA government. Speaking at the function, he said the NDA government’s achievements in highway and telecom sectors were praiseworthy. Naidu had extended his party’s outside support to the erstwhile NDA government headed by A B Vajpayee.

The TDP chief went on to praise Modi as well. “Earlier they used to talk only about Hyderabad. Now everyone talks only about (economic) development in Gujarat,” he told the gathering, referring to chief minister Narendra Modi’s administration in Gujarat. Attacking the UPA government over many issues, Naidu asserted that the “Congress should be defeated in the 2014 election or we will have to suffer for some more time.”