Ahead of their meeting in Hyderabad on 6 July, the chief ministers of both Telugu states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, albeit separately in New Delhi today. 

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart A Revanth Reddy are all set to hold their first meeting on Saturday to resolve the pending issues of the bifurcation act.

Advertisement

Both chief ministers also met the Union home minister Amit Shah separately since most of the issues related to bifurcation come under the Union ministry of home affairs. 

The BRS however, insinuated a conspiracy was brewing citing the meetings between Reddy and central ministers as well as the Prime Minister prior to his meeting with Naidu.

AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu who reached the national capital last night met a number of Union ministers apart from the Prime Minister and home minister Amit Shah, seeking funds for his state facing financial bankruptcy.

He met Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, housing minister ML Khattar, surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari and most importantly Dr Arvind Panagariya, Chairman of the 16 th Finance Commission. Since he is a key NDA ally this time with 16 MPs his visits to the national capital are likely to be more fruitful than the past.

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy also met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today along with his deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and presented a long list of critical issues including allocation of coal blocks in Singareni to the Singareni Collieries instead of auctioning. 

He also wanted allocation of 2450 acres of defence land for infrastructure projects such as roads and elevated corridors. This was Reddy’s first meeting with the Prime Minister after the latter assumed office for the third time. 

The chief minister also met Union minister Amit Shah and urged him to allocate funds for police force, particularly to set up special camps in areas facing threats from Left Wing Extremists. Reddy also briefed the Union home minister on his meeting with Naidu on 6 July in Hyderabad. The two chief ministers are most likely to try and resolve the issues of asset division according to the Schedules IX and X in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Since Reddy has been a TDP MLA under Naidu and a close confidante as well in the past the BRS has insinuated that both the chief ministers were working in collusion with the BJP. However, Reddy dismissed the BRS saying “ Where is BRS? Not only people but even KCR will have to search the BRS with a torchlight. It is now history. It only has a past but no future.” 

He was taking a dig at KCR for saying that after the betrayal of Congress people will be actively looking for BRS with torch light. Meanwhile, BRS turned Congress leader K Keshav Rao today submitted his resignation from Rajya Sabha although he had two years of tenure left. He is likely to be renominated by the Congress.