Naidu to Delhi, Modi to AP in back to back dos

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be finally visiting Guntur in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. The very next day, AP Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu will hold a day’s relay fast in the national capital. Naidu’s visit to New Delhi is a part of the protest meetings he has been holding across the state against the "step-motherly treatment" meted out by Modi government.

The AP government has booked two trains, each consisting of 20 coaches, to enable political as well as apolitical supporters of Naidu to travel to Delhi and back. According to sources, the government will incur Rs 1 crore expenditure on the two special trains. “If the opposition refuses to come to my support, people will see their true colours,” Naidu told his party seniors.

The Prime Minister was to address a mega meeting in Guntur on January 1. However the programme was cancelled at the last minute after the local government asked the people to boycott PM's visit. Spitting fire against Modi, Chandrababu Naidu asked, “Are you coming to our state to see if we are still alive?”

He exhorted the people to stage protests against PM’s visit to the state.

The BJP state unit for its part is hoping to use the PM’s visit to regain the lost confidence of the voters in the national party after the TDP severed ties and walked out of NDA government. “The PM will expose the lies of the Chief Minister. He will explain to people how Naidu took a U-turn on the special package issue,” BJP state president Kanna Lakshinarayana said.

Yogi visit

While the February 10 Guntur programme is confirmed, the BJP has deferred another visit of Modi to Visakhapatnam scheduled for February 16 citing clash of dates with his foreign tour. Instead, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will visit Visakhapatnam on February 14. He along with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will participate in a religious ritual at Sri Sarada Peetham.

Activists of AP Special Category Status Sadhana Samithi on Friday cleaned cars on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad highway as a symbolic gesture. “We will welcome the PM with empty pots on the day he visits the state,” said Chalasani Srinivas, convener of the organisation.