KCR, Jagan to meet on Jan 13, discussion on CAA, NRC and NPR likely

Hyderabad : Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart YS Jaganmohan Reddy to meet on January 13, at Pragathi Bhavan. A word doing around that the two state chiefs who will be meeting each other after a gap of 3 months, to discuss on the ‘Citizens Amendment Act’.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of heated political atmosphere prevailing across the country over the BJP-led NDA government’s moves on the controversial Citizeznship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

It is seen that Chief Ministers of non-BJP states are joining hands to fight against NDA government’s moves on CAA, NRC and NPR.

On January 13^th, KCR and Jagan Mohan Reddy representing TRS and YSRCP party respectively, are expected to discuss and arrive at a decision; their stand on the CAA, NRC and NRP.

AP capital shifting, pending bifurcation issues also on the agenda

The meeting also assumes significance in the wake of reports that AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning to shift the administrative capital of AP from Amaravathi to Visakhapatnam. It is learnt that the AP cabinet would be meeting on January 18 and on the same day, a special session of the AP Legislative Assembly would be held to discuss the capital shift plan.

Speculations are rife that Jagan would seek the support of KCR in his three capitals proposal and also his advice in resolving the issues associated with the capital shift. Both the CM are likely to discuss the post-bifurcation issues pending to be resolved between the two states.

During their last meeting held in September 2019, KCR ‘reportedly’ discussed the issue of putting up a joint fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president and now Home Minister Amit Shah.

Leaks from Pragathi Bhavan on KCR and Jagan’s strategy to fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, caused embarrassment to the AP Chief Minister. The latter’s office condemns media reports as ‘false and fabricated’. However, KCR remained silent, putting Jagan in a fix.

Since then there has been no official meeting between KCR and Jagan fuelling speculations that all was not well between them. The two state chiefs will be meeting after a gap of 3 months.

It is to note that Jagan quietly dropped the proposal of KCR to construct a joint irrigation project to link Godavari river with Krishna. And later announced that his own Godavari-Krishna linkage project from Polavaram to Banakacherla which fuelled speculations that their relations were strained.

The AP government had also filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing KCR’s Kaleshwaram project and other such projects like Palamuru-Ranga Reddy, Dindi, Sitaramasagar etc stating that they were being constructed in violation of the water tribunal awards and also AP Reorganisation Act.