Andhra, Telangana governor meets Mukherjee, Rajnath

Amid tension between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over the alleged phone-tapping and cash-for-vote scam, the governor of the two states E.S.L. Narasimhan on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Narasimhan is understood to have a given a report to the Centre on the latest situation in the two states in the wake of the recent developments.

The governor, who rushed to the national capital on Tuesday, declined to comment on the cash-for-vote scam or the alleged phone-tapping.

His visit assumes significance in view of the demand by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government of Andhra Pradesh that the governor be given powers to maintain law and order in common capital Hyderabad as envisaged in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is also in the national capital, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday with a demand for a probe into the phone-tapping and steps for implementation of the Reorganisation Act.

The TDP has accused the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government of violating the Constitution by tapping phones of Naidu, ministers and officials.

An audio tape of Naidu's alleged telephonic conversation with Telangana's nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson was aired on some television channels on Sunday.

TDP's deputy leader in the Telangana assembly A. Revanth Reddy was arrested on May 31 while offering Rs.50 lakh to Stephenson to lure him to vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in the legislative council elections.

TRS leaders alleged that Naidu is the mastermind of the scam and demanded his arrest.

The TDP government denied that the voice on the audio tape was that of Naidu and accused the Telangana government of fabricating voice records to implicate him.