Vice President-elect M. Venkaiah Naidu wanted to resign from the Rajya Sabha too along with his membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Union Ministry when he was chosen as the official candidate but he was prevented from doing so by party president Amit Shah.
“Usually I consider myself to be sharp but my party president’s brain is sharper. He advised me against quitting the RS membership because I too can cast my vote in the election. It never occurred to me,” recalled Mr. Naidu at an informal interaction with journalists here on Wednesday morning.
Even before he was chosen as the vice-presidential candidate, the senior BJP leader’s name was doing the rounds much to his embarrassment. “Newspapers were carrying reports about my candidature and I had to tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to give credence to such reports,” he said.
He pointed out that his former ministerial colleague and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj name was popular among the Opposition, including Congress MPs too. Accepting that once he sits on the Vice-President's chair, things would change, he said he was going through the works of his predecessors S. Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain and others to understand how to go about the job.
“What I miss most will be commenting on the current affairs. But, I am going to discuss with the officials to find out if there is any means where I can express views on the country’s developmental issues,” he said.
Media too played an important role in his political life, he said. “I am known to talk straight and never shied away from any debate from journalists. Everyone accepted,” he claimed. He said he learnt a lot by reading reports of several senior journalists such as the former Hyderabad Bureau chief of The Hindu , R.J. Rajendra Prasad.
Mr. Naidu is also going to miss “going on tours, meeting people and public meetings. I must have visited each and every village in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh several times and 620 districts across the country,” he said.
“I had no time for my son and daughter because of my schedules. However, now I am spending time with my grandchildren. Many may not know that I do go with them to restaurants and to movies too,” his face got lit up.
His parting shot was: “Someone said am now not only ‘Ushapathi’ (Usha’s husband) but also Upa Rashtrapati and RS Sabhapati, I only requested him not to make me ‘Sabka Pathi’,” in his trademark style!
BJP leaders K. Laxman, G. Kishan Reddy, N. Indrasena Reddy, N. Ramachandra Rao and others were present.
