Jagan, KCR bonhomie at wedding raise eyebrows

KCR arrived first at VNR Farms for the wedding of the granddaughter of Telangana Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Snigdha. She was getting married to Rohit, son of Krishnamohan Reddy, the officer on special duty to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

It has been over two years since the two Chief Ministers met. They last met at a programme organized by KCR at his official residence and camp office Pragathi Bhavan over river water sharing. No headway was made on this front and the differences between the two states continued.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh went ahead with its plans signaling that it could not take forward the proposal of the Telangana Chief Minister in sharing the river waters as it might incur huge costs. In fact, both leaders have gone to press criticizing the stand of each other's governments.

An interesting development in between that's worth a mention is that Jagan's sister Y.S Sharmila launched a political party of her own and began a bitter criticism against the KCR regime.

Meanwhile, a lot of proverbial water flowed down the Krishna and the Godavari and there has been no occasion for both Chief Ministers to meet.

At a time when KCR blew the bugle against the BJP at the Centre and is enlisting the support of different states and leaders, Sunday's wedding came in handy for both leaders to meet. While Jagan joined KCR at the wedding, the former was received with warmth and affection by the latter. The two reportedly held personal discussions also.

This becomes interesting at a time when KCR is cornering the BJP at the Centre and more so the Telangana unit of the BJP. The meeting became very significant in the light of developments in Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly where former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had announced that he would never come back to the House until he was elected the Chief Minister again. Mr. Naidu also broke down in front of the media at a press conference while referring to the alleged remarks made by YSR Congress Party MLAs against his wife Bhuvaneswari who never stepped into public life.

Mr. Naidu's weeping went viral and drew millions of eyeballs on social media. The TDP and YSRCP exchanged barbs and did not relent on the issue. The simmering comments between both sides continued on social media and mainstream media even on Sunday.

Against this background, the meeting between the two Chief Ministers and the palpable bonhomie became very interesting. The wedding was also attended by Telangana Governor Dr. Tamilisai Rangarajan apart from other dignitaries from across both states.