Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is rushing to the national capital following the success of the Opposition-sponsored bandh in Andhra Pradesh. 

 

The bandh decried the centre’s refusal to assign Andhra a special category and also struck out against Naidu's TDP government for its alleged collusion with the BJP on the subject.

 

Naidu is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many other senior ministers such as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu, etc. 

 

Though he is slated to call on the ministers on Thursday on the pretext of inviting them to the 'Krishna Pushkaralu', scheduled to be held fromAugust 12 for twelve days, TDP sources disclosed that the visit was primarily a political mission.

 

Naidu wants to meet the PM and the President before opposition leader and YSRC president Jaganmohan Reddy meets and briefs them about what is happening in the state. 

 

Earlier, while addressing the media after the bandh, Jaganmohan had indicated that he had sought an appointment with President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Modi to mount pressure on the Centre to categorise Andhra Pradesh as a special category status state.

 

TDP sources say Naidu will discuss the changing political equations in the state with BJP top brass, and stress the need to reign in the opposition parties by announcing a bigger package on the lines of the one offered to Bihar by Modi on the eve of Bihar Assembly elections.

  

TDP believes that the opposition could be silenced through an attractive package if special status was not practicable. 

 

An undeclared coalition of opposition parties was obvious in the manner yesterday’s bandh was organised. And that seems to have unsettled Naidu.  

 

That Naidu had to address a press conference in the evening, quite an unusual reaction to a bandh, reveals the impact of the bandh on Naidu’s psyche. 

 

Naidu is passing through a strange predicament.  

 

As the chief minister, he is terribly unhappy with the Centre. But as the TDP president, he wants to sail with the BJP, given his isolation in the state. 

 

As both the NDA government and BJP organisation is presided over by the same person, PM Modi, Naidu has evolved a two-pronged strategy: Attacking the union government in Vijayawada in Telugu and praising PM Modi in English when in New Delhi. 

 

Yesterday’s response to the bandh call seems to have proven the strategy as inadequate.

 

Naidu unhappiness has some deep roots. Even though it has been 10 months since the PM visited the state on October 22, 2015, to lay the foundation stone for the Amaravati capital city, the state has not received any special help from the centre. 

 

In fact, Modi’s gift, a pot of Delhi soil and a pail of Yamuna water, has become the butt of jokes in the state. The Congress organised a ‘return gift’ by dispatching parcels of ‘Andhra Soil’ to PMO.

 

With the special status issue returning to centre stage in Andhra Pradesh with renewed vigour, Naidu wants the PM to visit the state during 'Krishna Puskaralu' and assure the people about a special package being formulated for Andhra Pradesh.

 

This is in return for Naidu’s public pronouncement two days ago that TDP would not leave the NDA alliance, come what may.  

 

Naidu declared this stand in the emergency meeting of MPs a day before the Andhra bandh. 

 

Another niggling irritation for Naidu is that the PM is visiting Gajwel town of Telangana on August 7 to launch many flagship programs such as Mission Bhagiratha, initiated by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. 

 

TDP circles are sceptical about any positive outcome from the visit.