Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu always claims that he has no interest whatsoever on national politics.
But his media managers give regular leaks to the media saying all the opposition parties want Naidu to take the lead in forming a federal front at the national level to pull down the NDA government.
On Friday, too, when Karnataka chief minister had an informal meeting with Naidu in Vijayawada, the latter’s publicity wing sought to create an impression that the Janata Dal leader wanted the TDP president to take the initiative in forming the anti-BJP alliance at the national level.
According to sources, Kumaraswamy actually came to Vijayawada along with his family to have a darshan of Goddess Kanaka Durga.
At the same time, Naidu was supposed to leave for Tirupati for an official function – laying foundation stone for the construction of cancer hospital by the Tata Group.
Since Kumaraswamy was coming to Vijayawada for the first time, Naidu thought it would not be proper to ignore the chief minister of the neighbouring state.
So, he spent some time at the Hotel Gateway for about half an hour, en route the airport, to meet Kumaraswamy over a cup of tea. Naturally, the talk of a regional front came up for discussion.
"We had initial round of discussion on working together and bringing the regional parties together to defeat the NDA. We will soon meet again for detailed discussion,” Naidu told media persons after the meeting.
He also stressed on the need for unity among regional parties in the south.
Kumaraswamy said the exercise to bring regional parties together had already begun and today's meeting with Naidu is continuation of it.
“We shall sit together and decide who should be the Prime Minister candidate. Our goal is to defeat the NDA,” he said.
