On his second visit to Delhi, Chandrababu Naidu to meet Amit Shah again

Chandrababu Naidu’s latest visit is believed to be a follow-up of the demands he made during his July 4 trip to Delhi.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu suspended the IPS officers under rule 3(1) of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969. (File photo) (PTI Photo)

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu will be in Delhi for a two-day visit starting Tuesday — his second trip to the Capital in nearly a fortnight. During his last trip to Delhi on July 4, Naidu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in two separate meetings. He also met other Union ministers, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, that day.

A TDP source told The Indian Express that Naidu’s latest visit is mainly to meet Amit Shah for the second time. In fact, many of the TDP MPs were not informed of Naidu’s visit to Delhi, the source added. “It is going to be a low-key visit and it is not about the Union Budget and allocations for Andhra Pradesh,” said the source, even as Naidu’s visit is just a week before the Budget Session of Parliament.

Naidu’s current visit is believed to be a follow-up of the demands raised during his last visit.

In the last meeting with Shah, Naidu discussed the division of assets under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, and the bifurcation of institutions under Schedule X of the Act. As per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, some of the state assets were to be shared between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

While Telangana was carved out of Andhra in 2014, Hyderabad continued to be the joint capital of the state for 10 years and many of the assets in the city were to be shared between the two states during this period. Now, after a decade, the assets are to be amicably divided between AP and Telangana. Naidu’s discussions with Shah were broadly about this division. Naidu also sought Shah’s aid in solving “financial issues between APGENCO and Telangana Discoms”.

The TDP chief also asked Shah for Central aid in setting up a trained commando unit which focuses on crushing Left Wing Extremism (LWE), and requested the Union home minister to review the IPS officer cadre in Andhra to increase their strength from 79 to 117.

“As he is going to be in Delhi for two days he will be meeting a few other ministers too,” a TDP source said without sharing the names of the ministers Naidu will meet.

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With his government expected to bring out a whitepaper on the debt crisis gripping Andhra Pradesh on July 18, the meetings could also be about the issue.

Naidu’s TDP is an integral ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and has a considerable say in the alliance. There are 16 MPs from his party in the Lok Sabha.

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