Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday went to Vijayawada in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state to fulfil his vow of presenting a diamond-studded golden nose ring to Goddess Kanaka Durga on Indra Keeladri.
So far so good. But the timing of his visit appears to be a little odd. KCR had gone to Vijayawada at a time when his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu was not around.
The Andhra chief minister left for Srikakulam at 9 am in the morning to participate in Eruvaka programme – of initiating sowing of seeds for the Kharif crops which is taken up with a lot of festive fervour.
KCR landed only after Naidu left for Srikakulam. Apparently, KCR fixed his schedule only after getting the programme of Naidu confirmed, so that he would not face the situation of meeting the Andhra chief minister.
Had Naidu been in Vijayawada, KCR could not have avoided meeting him at least as per the courtesy.
It is quite obvious that both the chief ministers have not been seeing eye-to-eye for quite some time, ever since the Telangana government reopened the cash for vote scandal. Even during the recent Niti Aayog meeting, they avoided each other.
However, Naidu did not forget to extend all the protocol formalities to KCR, though he did not get the chance to meet the latter.
He deputed his senior minister Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao to receive KCR at the airport and bring him to the hotel for a brief stay. The Andhra police gave KCR a guard of honour.
Traffic restrictions were imposed in Vijayawada for the smooth travel of KCR and his convoy to Kanaka Durga temple, where he was received with full temple honours.
The entire family of KCR got a royal treatment at the temple.
