Till recently, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao displayed tremendous bonhomie, as if they are bosom friends.
They hugged, shook hands with each other and attended functions like Amaravati foundation stone laying and Ayutha Chandi Yagam held at each other’s places.
But with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections round the corner, the two Chief Minister are now trying to avoid each other, since it would send wrong signals to their respective party cadres, especially because the TRS and the TDP-BJP combine are the major rivals in the elections.
That is precisely the reason why Naidu and KCR were conspicuous by their absence at the “At Home” party thrown by Governor E S L Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan on the 67th Republic Day celebrations on Tuesday. They did not give any reasons for their absence.
When media persons asked the Governor as to why they did not attend the traditional function hosted by him, the Governor said "It is a fact that they have not come and they will be having their own reasons" for staying away, he said. He admitted that last year too they could not make it to the programme.
The Governor, however, made it amply clear that his relations with both the Chief minister are 'very cordial'.
"I have attended the Republic Day function in both the States where the Chief Ministers of the respective States were present and we discussed several issues," Narasimhan added.
