After Naidu lost his home turf to Jagan, the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telanaga are all set to work together for development of their respective states.
Hyderabad: After warring for two decades, Telangana and Andhra have become friends thanks to the bonhomie struck between the Chief Ministers of the two states, K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, respectively. Putting a fractious past behind them, the KCR-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Jagan-led YSR Congress are talking of harmonious ties between the two neighbouring states.
The presence of KCR at the swearing in ceremony of Jagan as CM in Vijaywada’s Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium on Thursday, signalled a new era in Telangana-Andhra relations, especially since constant bickering between the two had become a headache even for the Central government. At the function, KCR not only wished that Jagan should be in power for “three to four terms”, but also talked of Andhra’s development.
KCR’s comments drew a huge applause from the crowd, while Jagan nodded his head in agreement. KCR promised to help Andhra utilise the water of Godavari, which flows through both states before merging with the Bay of Bengal. “My wish is that we should ensure proper utilisation of the river water for the benefit of the people of both the states,” declared KCR.
For the first time ever KCR said “we should strive for the well-being of Telugu people in both states.” This would have been unthinkable until recently, considering Andhra, from which Telangana was carved out, has been his object of ire for a long time. He also suggested that both states should make use of every drop of water from Krishna river so that parched land could be irrigated.
KCR, seated on the dais with DMK leader M.K. Stalin, was the main attraction at Jagan’s swearing in ceremony. He led a big delegation of TRS leaders including Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to the event. KCR interacted with Jagan for a long time at the lunch hosted by the new Chief Minister. KCR was scheduled to go to New Delhi with Jagan to attend the oath taking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the evening, but they couldn’t as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation refused permission for landing in Delhi after 4 pm for unscheduled flights. Jagan and KCR were scheduled to take a special flight from Vijayawada to Delhi at 2.45 pm. The next commercial flight was at 6.15 pm, but it would land in Delhi only around 8.45 pm, well after the PM’s swearing in. So KCR returned to Hyderabad from Vijayawada.
Earlier on Sunday, KCR was accorded a rousing reception by the leaders of YSR Congress at the temple town of Tirupati, where he had gone with his family members. A day before that Jagan called on KCR at his Pragathi Bhavan residence in Hyderabad to invite him to his swearing in ceremony.
KCR’s apparent support to Jagan and Andhra primarily has to do with his bitter relations with former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu, whose TDP has a strong presence in Telangana, never enjoyed cordial relations with KCR. Their enmity reached its peak during the cash-for-vote-scam in 2015, when TDP tried to offer money to a TRS MLC to win an MLC seat. Even the 15-year-long Telangana agitation was based on KCR’s bitterness with Naidu and his TDP. Though Congress CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy too tried to weaken the Telangana agitation during his time, the activists of TRS mostly targeted Naidu and TDP and projected them as the villain of the piece. The bitterness continued even after the bifurcation of the two states in June 2014.
That enmity between KCR and Naidu extended thereafter and led to an impasse in solving many of the disputes between the two states. Governor Narasimhan, who looks after the two states, tried several times to arrange a meeting of the two CMs, but failed. As a result, dozens of institutions common to the two states and huge funds, remain undivided.
In the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, Naidu joined hands with Congress to defeat KCR, but failed. After he won the elections, KCR announced that he would “offer a return gift” to Naidu in the AP elections. TDP leaders alleged that KCR as part of his return gift to defeat TDP gave huge funds to Jagan in the 11 April elections.
Now that Jagan is in power in Andhra, KCR is expected to take initiatives to resolve all pending issues between the two states. Telangana’s Animal Husbandry Ministry Talasani Srinivas Yadav, who accompanied KCR to Vijayawada, said that the two CMs would meet to resolve all outstanding issues.
Also there is talk that KCR might invite Jagan to utilise Andhra’s portion of the Secretariat in Hyderabad for the next five years. As per the AP Reorganization Act, Hyderabad would be the common capital for the two states for a period of 10 years, till 2024. But Naidu had left it as his relations with KCR turned sour in 2015. “Now that we had delivered our return gift to Naidu (by defeating TDP in AP), there are no more issues between us (two states), everything is normal and peaceful,” said Yadav.