Telugu Desam party president N. Chandrababu Naidu returned home from Bhopal on Saturday pleased with the response of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to his stand against bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh without first addressing the concerns of Seemandhra.
The Gujarat Chief Minister assured Mr. Naidu that the BJP would not be a party to passing “a legally defective and infirm Bill” in Parliament.
The two leaders were closeted for nearly one hour after the swearing-in of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the morning.
Mr. Modi reiterated what BJP president Rajnath Singh said on Friday that the party, while remaining firmly committed to the creation of Telangana, was equally determined to safeguard the concerns of Seemandhra.
This was stated by TDP vice-president K. Rammohan Rao, who was among the leaders who accompanied Mr. Naidu to Bhopal.
The TDP president rubbed shoulders with the entire top brass of the BJP, including L. K. Advani, Mr. Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, besides Mr. Modi.
In a sign of the blossoming friendship between the two parties, Mr. Naidu received invitations to attend the swearing-in ceremonies of all the three BJP Chief Ministers — Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Mr. Chouhan (MP) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh). But he could make it only to Bhopal as the Assembly was in session.
