Amaravati, Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for publication of corrected version of the India map by the Centre, showing Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
The Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) national President, who had used some harsh words in attacking Modi-Shah during the election campaign, addressed a letter to Amit Shah, who is also the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In his letter, the Leader of Opposition wrote that people of Andhra Pradesh were disappointed over the map published by Survey of India on November 2 as Amaravati did not find a place on the map.
He recalled in his letter that Prime Minister Modi had laid foundation stone for Amaravati on October 22, 2015.
Naidu, who was then the Chief Minister, pointed out that the TDP MPs raised the issue in the Parliament on November 21 and the Ministry of Home Affairs took expeditious action and corrected the error in no time.
This is the first time since the TDP’s crushing defeat in the elections that Naidu has written a letter to Shah thanking him and Modi. During the poll campaign, the TDP chief had gone all out in attacking the two leaders. The BJP leaders had also trained guns on Naidu.
The development comes amid Naidu’s efforts to mend fences with the BJP. He has regretted snapping ties with the saffron party and is reported to be ready to once again join hands.
Amaravati, the brainchild of Naidu, was missing from the earlier map published by Survey of India. This triggered a war of words between ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and main opposition TDP. Naidu’s party had blamed YSRCP and had alleged that this shows the government wants to dump Amaravati as the capital and choose some other location as the state capital. YSRCP leaders had claimed that the previous TDP government had not notified Amaravati as the capital.
