Distancing the BJP from the series of cases filed against former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Home Minister Amit Shah met his son Nara Lokesh on October 11 night in Delhi. The meeting ostensibly was to enquire about his father’s health who has been in judicial remand for the last one month, but Mr. Shah also sought to clear the air that the BJP has nothing to do with the legal action against Mr. Naidu.
While the meeting is aimed at sending a strong political message for Andhra Pradesh, where the BJP has so far managed to carefully balance itself between the TDP and the ruling YSR Congress, it is equally important for poll-bound Telangana.
The meeting, informed sources said, was sought by Minister of State Kishen Reddy, who is also BJP’s State unit chief for Telangana. “Mr. Naidu’s arrest has also drawn reactions in Telangana. The BJP, which is flailing in campaign for the Telangana Assembly polls with a resurgent Congress edging it out from the second position, is keen to dispel the notion that they are with the YSR Congress in ongoing criminal harassment of Mr. Naidu,” a senior TDP leader said.
Mr. Reddy, along with BJP State president of Andhra Pradesh D. Purandeswari, was present at the meeting. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was in the capital in the first week of October for the Chief Ministers’ meeting of Naxal-affected States, also had a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Shah. But pictures of the meeting were not publicised by Mr. Shah’s office or the BJP.
In contrast, minutes after Mr. Lokesh and Mr. Shah’s meeting, Ms. Purandeshwari put out the photos. In a post on X, she wrote, “Lokesh elaborately explained to Amit Shah ji about the vindictiveness of the State government and leaders at the helm of affairs. Now those who blame the Centre need to reply as to why Amit Shah ji would give an appointment to Lokesh if the BJP was behind the arrest!”
‘Patient hearing’
Mr. Lokesh, who in the recent weeks has gone from lamenting about the BJP’s silence on his father’s arrest, to saying that there is no evidence of the BJP supporting the YSR Congress, said the Home Minister gave a “patient hearing” to him and there was no political conversation between the two. “Home Minister Amit Shah wanted to meet me to understand what are the cases against Mr. Naidu and to understand threadbare about what is happening in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Mr. Shah, he said, expressed concern about Mr. Naidu’s health and commiserating with him said a “73-year-old man should not be treated this way. “He said the Bharatiya Janata Party is being blamed for what the YSR Congress is doing,” Mr. Lokesh said.
