Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravati after 60 days, to host mega TDP meet via Zoom

After over 60 days in Hyderabad due to lockdown and then a cancelled flight, Chandrababu Naidu, along with his son Nara Lokesh, drove down to Amaravati on Monday afternoon.

TDP Andhra unit president Kala Venkat Rao said Naidu would focus on the party activities again.

“He would address the two-day biennial party conclave Maha Nadu to be held on May 27 and 28 through Zoom application. In all, 14,000 party delegates would attend Maha Nadu through Zoom,” he said.

As Naidu, Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, had obtained special permission from the police departments in both the states, his convoy had a smooth passage at the inter-state check post at Garikapadu on the National Highway No. 65. The Andhra police, however, checked the vehicles of other TDP leaders who accompanied his convoy.

Entering the home state after a gap of more than two months, Naidu was given a rousing reception at the check-post and at different locations all along the highway. He straightaway drove to his residence at Vundavalli on the banks of Krishna river.

On Sunday evening, Andhra Pradesh DGP Gautam Sawang wrote to Naidu giving him permission to fly to Visakhapatam to call on the families of those who lost members in the poisonous gas leak on May 7. Later, he had planned to return to Amaravati by road.

The DGP issued an electronic pass to Naidu to travel to Visakhapatnam, saying that the visit of the opposition leader was being treated as a special case.

However, as Naidu was preparing to fly to Visakhapatnam, the Centre announced late on Sunday night that all flights to Andhra Pradesh had been cancelled on technical grounds on the request of the state government and that the flights would begin only on Tuesday.

It forced the TDP chief to cancel his Vizag visit and he decided to travel to Amaravati by road.

TDP lawmaker and former minister K K Atchannaidu alleged that the YSR Congress government had deliberately deferred resumption of flight services only to prevent the former chief minister from visiting Vizag.

“It is only after Chandrababu Naidu’s schedule was announced that the state government deferred the resumption of services, that too only by a day. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s tweets indicate the same,” he claimed.