Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar meets TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu at Bengaluru’s HAL airport.
A major political development was noticed at Bengaluru’s HAL airport, where Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar held an impromptu meeting with Telugu Desam Party Chief N Chandrababu Naidu. The unexpected meeting between the two leaders on Thursday afternoon has triggered some instant political gossip in the political arena.
Former-Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Naidu was in the city to participate in Bengaluru TDP Forum event, where he interacted with his party’s cadres. From Bengaluru, he was to fly ahead to meet TDP Kuppam constituency convener Trilok, who sustained injuries while protesting the judicial custody of Naidu at Rajamahendravaram Central Prison.
Naidu and Shivakumar meet at Bengaluru’s HAL airport runway
At the airport, around the same time, DK Shivakumar also arrived at the airport to board his flight to Nagpur, where he was to participate in the 139th Congress Foundation Day. At the runway, the duo suddenly came across each other, where they met with utmost warmth and exchanged pleasantries.
What triggered the speculation was they both went aside leaving behind their security and other staff to have a chit chat with each other. That interaction between Chandrababu Naidu and DK Shiva Kumar gained prominence among the political circles ahead of the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, which is slated to take place in April next year.
That few minutes of meeting was comfortably captured on camera, which also went viral. The social media didn’t lose much time in spreading the rumours that Naidu would be joining the INDI Alliance.
Significance ahead of Andhra polls
The latest development has come up, amid several speculations that the Bharatiya Janata Party is silently mulling over options between the ruling YSR Congress Party and the TDP, in Andhra Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha and the state assembly polls.
The BJP at present has both the ruling as well as the opposition parties in Andhra to its side. Now, after the event that unexpectedly took place at the airport in Bengaluru, speculations about change in political dynamics are growing riff.
#WATCH | DK Shivakumar, Karnataka Deputy CM met former CM of Andhra Pradesh and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu at HAL airport in Bengaluru, earlier today pic.twitter.com/dLamRjf0I9
— ANI (@ANI)
On the other hand, it is being said that the Telugu Desam Party under Naidu’s leadership decided to not contest polls in Telangana, which led to an indirect assistance to Congress and Revanth Reddy in winning the assembly polls.