Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Hyderabad on Thursday to attend the 20th annual celebrations at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is reportedly set to skip meeting Modi and will be in Bengaluru on Thursday to meet JD(S) leader and former PM HD Deve Gowda.
This is the second time in four months that Rao is avoiding meeting PM Modi, the first being when the prime minister came to the state to unveil the Statue of Equality, a giant statue of Saint Ramanujacharya, near Hyderabad on 5 February.
The Prime Minister will participate in the celebration of completion of 20 years of ISB Hyderabad and address the graduation ceremony of Post Graduate Programme class of 2022 and according to reports, the Chief Minister is likely not to receive the PM as he “has other prescheduled plans.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday lashed out at CM Rao after reports surfaced that he will not be in the state during Modi’s visit.
Speaking to ANI, BJP OBC morcha National President Dr K Lakshman said the state BJP unit will felicitate Modi at the airport and, “The people of Telangana are vexed with the present Telangana government and more particularly KCR, being the chief Minister not maintaining minimum courtesy to receive PM. This is not the first time but a second time, during this time, KCR is visiting other states, and the people of Telangana are laughing at him,” he said.
“This is not the system but the CM acts that way. Irrespective of political and party affiliations, it is the bounden duty of the Chief Minister to receive him at the airport and protocol has to be maintained. We were told that except for the Chief secretary, no other Minister is coming to receive PM,” Lakshman told news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, Telangana police has tightened security arrangements for the prime minister’s visit to the city on May 26, who will be attending an event at the ISB, and is deploying around 2,500 police personnel.
With inputs from News18, ANI, PTI