Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy called on former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at his Nandi Nagar residence on Thursday after the latter underwent a hip replacement surgery last month.
He was warmly received by BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, Rajya Sabha MP Santosh Kumar Joginapally and former Ministers of the BRS government. This is Mr. Reddy’s first visit to Telangana after the BRS lost and the Congress formed the government.
Though the two-hour meeting over lunch was termed as a courtesy call to enquire about the health of KCR, who is recuperating from surgery, it came at a time when Mr. Reddy’s sister Y.S. Sharmila joined the Congress party in New Delhi.
What transpired between the leaders was not revealed to the public; it is learnt that the two shared their views on the poll results in Telangana that saw the ouster of KCR after two terms. The meeting assumed significance after Mr. Jagan made hot comments that his family was being divided for political gains. Andhra Pradesh is scheduled to go to polls in April and May along with the Parliament elections.
Both Mr. Reddy and KCR share a common political foe in the form of former AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. It is widely believed that KCR had a role in the defeat of Mr. Naidu in the 2019 elections and he extended support to Mr. Jagan in several forms including monetary support and targeting Mr. Naidu’s election support teams working from Hyderabad at that time.
Right after his election in 2019, Mr. Reddy called on KCR at Pragati Bhavan (now Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan) to thank him for the ‘support’ and also discuss sharing of waters between the two States. Their friendship since then had been strong and the tension created on the Nagarjunasagar Dam on November 29, a day before Telangana went to polls, was viewed as a deliberate attempt to raise Telangana sentiment to favour KCR in the elections. Water was released by the AP government from the dam with the AP police teams jumping the barricades in the night to open the gates and leading to tension.
Congress had alleged that the move, coming a few hours before the polling, was intentional and Mr. Jagan’s government wanted to create an impression that only KCR could safeguard Telangana’s interests. However, the incident did not impact the elections anyway and the BRS was routed in Nalgonda district where the dam is located.
