New Delhi: The big political affair of special status for Andhra Pradesh gained momentum with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu leading a protest march in Delhi on Tuesday.
All the MPs, MLAs and MLCs of his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were also a part in the march.
Chandrababu Naidu held the march from Andhra Pradesh Bhavan (where he held a dharna on Monday) to Jantar Mantar to register his protest.
Following the march, Naidu met President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 12.30 pm.
Naidu’s day-long hunger-strike on Monday once again brought opposition parties together.
Leaders from nearly two dozen political parties, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, met Andhra CM and expressed their support to him.
Interestingly, BJP’s ally Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut was among those who extended support for Naidu’s demand.
Sanjay Raut was told by the party chief Uddhav Thackeray to visit Naidu at his dharna site. This development escalates tension between BJP and Shiv Sena as apparently the latter is not happy with the ruling party at the Centre and Maharashtra.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, rebel BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha, Manmohan Singh, HD Deve Gowda, NCP president Sharad Pawar, TMC leader Derek O’Brien and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha were among the prominent leaders who visited Naidu.
Naidu’s TDP was part of the ruling NDA till mid-March 2018. Naidu cited “neglect” of Andhra Pradesh by the Modi government as the reason for the exit.
Naidu had held PM Modi responsible for the political fallout saying that he flew to the national capital “29 times” but the meets fell futile.
