Chandrababu meets KCR, invites for capital foundation stone ceremony

Setting aside the bitterness in their relations, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday met his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao to invite him and his family members for the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new state capital.

Naidu, who flew in from Tirupati, drove to KCR's official residence and handed over the invitation for the ceremony on October 22 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay foundation stone for Amaravati

This was Naidu's first visit to Telangana CM's residence after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. As his convoy entered the high-security residence, KCR came out to welcome him with a bouquet.

Naidu also presented a shawl and bouquet to KCR. While Naidu was accompanied by his TDP's Telangana unit president L. Ramna and another party leader E. Dayakar Rao, KCR had with him his son and minister K. Tarakarama Rao, Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali and another minister Jagdish Reddy.

During nearly an hour-long meeting Naidu, explained to his Telangana counterpart details of the foundation laying ceremony and his plans for development of Amaravati. They also discussed various issues including interlinking of rivers.

This was the first between the two chief ministers after eight months. They had met earlier at the initiative of both states' Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.

The two leaders were engaged in a bitter war of words after a legislator of Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was caught red-handed in May while trying to bribe a nominated legislator of Telangana to make him vote for the party candidate in Telangana legislative council elections.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had accused Naidu of being the mastermind in the cash-for-vote scandal. An audio tape of Naidu's purported telephonic conversation with nominated Elvis Stephenson was also aired on some TV channels.

Naidu had hit back by complaining to the central government that his phone was being tapped by Telangana government.

The TDP chief had also urged the central government to handover special powers to governor in Hyderabad, the common capital.