Ever since Telugu Desam Party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party in April this year and stepped up the attack on the party in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular, he has been under constant counter-attack from the saffron party leaders.
Especially, leaders like Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao have been accusing him of hijacking the central schemes and misusing the central funds for his publicity programmes.
As if to counter their arguments and woo the pro-BJP sections of the society, Naidu came up with an interesting idea.
On Saturday, the Naidu government wrote a letter to the Centre, requesting that the upcoming All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Mangalagiri in Amaravati region be named after former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who passed away a couple of days ago.
In fact, Naidu had mooted the proposal three years ago when the AIIMS was still in the conceptual stage. It was pending with the Centre, which did not take any decision as the AIIMS did not take any shape.
Even before the Centre reacted on this, Naidu quickly came up with the fresh proposal soon after the death of the veteran leader.
It may be mentioned that Naidu had a very cordial relationship with Vajpayee, since the days of N T Rama Rao. He was one of the close confidants of Vajpayee.
Though he joined the NDA during the Narendra Modi regime, he did not have the same friendly relations with Modi. Now that Vajpayee died, he thought it fit to name the AIIMS after the departed leader.
This will definitely keep the BJP supporters in good humour, if not the BJP as such. It remains to be seen whether such positive decision will fetch any benefit to the TDP.
