Recalling his association with the outgoing Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, union parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi, on Monday, said Naidu’s time as Bharatiya Janata Party’s national president didn’t give the latter any airs. According to Joshi, whenever Naidu visited Bengaluru, he would make it a point to have masala dosa at the Janardhana hotel, where he regularly stayed.
In his farewell speech for Naidu in Rajya Sabha as his term as the upper house chairman, too, ended on Wednesday, Joshi said about Naidu that before becoming the Vice President, the veteran BJP leader was unassuming and would only stay at the famous hotel in Gandhinagar.
“Despite being BJP national president, Naidu always preferred to stay at Janardhan Hotel and used to meet everybody without any appointments,” Joshi said.
Naidu, who was elected for the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka three times, always had a special love for the people of the state, Joshi said.
The union minister, who spoke in Kannada, said Naidu lived in simplicity and happily mingled with the ordinary workers of the party, even when he was the national president of BJP.
“Always wearing a ‘white dhoti’ and shirt, which is a popular dress in south India, Naidu makes it a point that he was always rooted despite being the Vice President of India. Naidu’s love for his mother tongue is always appreciable,” Joshi said.
Hailing Naidu’s respect for time, Joshi said: “When Naidu was the national president and general secretary of the BJP, we used to call him the ‘headmaster’ as he was so strict when it came to punctuality.”
Naidu also has a special love for Nellore in Andhra Pradesh—his hometown—and had implemented several developmental projects there, as well as had taken up several social causes through an NGO, Joshi said.
(Published 08 August 2022, 15:53 IST)
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