The two-day tour of Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the national capital of New Delhi came to an end on Friday, triggering hopes of a positive response from the Centre towards the issues concerning the state.
Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu had met almost all the top Union ministers including Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitaraman, Piyush Goyal, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Hardeep Singh Puri and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, besides 14th finance commission chairman Arvind Panagariya and Niti Aayog officials.
Going by the reports from New Delhi, all the meetings went on well and Naidu came out with a satisfactory mood.
However, sources said Naidu had not put forth any demands before the Centre, but only made several requests pertaining to the state.
“He did not put up any demanding posture during the meetings, but was speaking in a requesting tone,” a TDP leader who was aware of the developments in Delhi said.
For the top BJP leaders, it was a surprise as Naidu did not submit any long wish list and bring any pressure on the Centre, though the TDP has 16 MPs and is the second largest alliance partner in the NDA.
“Unlike Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (U), Naidu did not raise the issue of special category status or any other impractical demands,” the TDP leader said.
Sources said Naidu did not want to give an impression in his very first trip to New Delhi that the Narendra Modi government is depending on his party’s support.
At the same time, he wants to get the maximum benefits from the Centre to bail out the state from financial crisis.
“Since the BJP is also part of the NDA government in Andhra Pradesh, Naidu wants to send a message to the Centre that it would help the BJP as well in Andhra Pradesh in the coming days, if it extends liberal assistance to the state,” sources said.
