HYDERABAD: The ‘At Home’ hosted by Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan here on Friday on the occasion of Independence Day seems to renew the bonhomie between Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao.
A few days after their first ‘pleasant encounter’, during which both of them had shaken each other’s hands and patted their backs, both Naidu and KCR for another time joined hands and cracked jokes with Governor by sitting on either side of him.
Indicating that they have decided to bury the hatchet at least for now, both the Chief Ministers were seen conversing with each other in a friendly manner. Naidu and KCR, who had been crossing swords on contentious issues concerning both the States, during their stay at the Raj Bhavan appeared composed.
Though, at first, both appeared reluctant to exchange pleasantries, as the time passed by, the two Chief Ministers gradually set aside their differences and started conversing with each other.
When they sat with the Governor along with the Speakers of both the Assemblies and also with Chairmen of both the Councils, flanked by ministers from either of the two States, they exchanged greetings and joined the conversation with the Governor.
They were seen discussing on a issue with the Governor for over 20 minutes. They were even seen nodding their heads on the comments made by the other. Governor Narasimhan, who has been walking tightrope and trying to maintain cordial relationship with the two, had a closet meeting with both of them for over 30 minutes at his chamber.
It is learnt that the Governor tried to sort out contentious issues that was affecting the two states’ relationship.
Earlier, both Naidu and KCR arrived at the Rajbhavan 15 minutes before the scheduled time and greeted the Governor. They were with the Governor and his wife for about 15 minutes.
Around 5.30 pm both the CMs arrived along with the Governor at the venue and greeted the guests with Naidu on the right side of the Governor and KCR on the left. All the three went around the Rajbhavan lawns and greeted guests, including freedom fighters, former bureaucrats, defence personnel, ministers, MPs, MLAs and political leaders of different parties.
Both were seen interacting with leaders of other parties, including senior congress leaders, D Srinivas, V Hanumantha Rao, BJP MP Bandaru Dattatraya, MLA K Lakshman, Lok Satta party chief Jayaprakash Narayan and others.
After greeting them KCR took his seat and was seen observing people especially Naidu who was still busy talking to guests, including Telangana chief secretary Rajiv Sharma. Once Governor finished meeting all the guests and occupied his seat Naidu sat beside him and they started conversation and KCR joined them. The way they were discussing the issue and by seeing their body language it appears that they were discussing non-political issue as the governor was the one who was doing most of the conversation.
Both the leaders spent nearly one and a half hours together.
The guests and the media were expecting some hugging and patting but to their disappointment they remained clam while greeting and speaking to the guests.