Visakhapatnam, March 6 After three decades, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his co-brother Daggubati Venkateswara Rao on Thursday shared the dais and decided to bury the hatchet.
The sons-in-law of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder and former chief minister N. T. Rama Rao (NTR) hugged each other after Venkateswara Rao urged Chandrababu Naidu to forget the past and not to have any feelings of ill-will.
The occasion was the release of Venkateswar Rao’s book ‘Prapancha Charitra’ (world history) in the presence of former Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Venkateswara Rao’s wife and BJP state president Daggubati Purandeswari.
“You all know about. That’s past and that’s over. I laud him for all his efforts and wish him best for the future,” the former MP said addressing Chandrababu Naidu.
When Venkateswara Rao returned to his seat after his speech, Chandrababu Naidu stood up to hug him, amid thunderous applause by the audience.
Chandrababu Naidu, in his speech, praised Venkateswara Rao for writing the book and said he didn’t know that Venkateswara Rao had so much depth.
The conflict between the co-brothers dates back to the 1990s when Chandrababu Naidu had led a revolt against NTR to become chief minister of then united Andhra Pradesh.
Venkateswara Rao, who had initially backed Chandrababu Naidu, later came back to NTR.
After NTR’s death, a few months after the revolt, he remained with NTR TDP (LP), headed NTR’s second wife Lakshmi Parvathi. In 1999, he joined Anna TDP floated by NTR’s son Harikrishna. After the party’s humiliating defeat, he stayed away from politics for a few years. In 2004, he, along with his wife, joined the Congress party at the invitation of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
Though Purandeswari, who was elected to Lok Sabha twice on Congress ticket and even became a minister in UPA government, switched loyalty to BJP in 2014 following bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Venkateswara Rao joined YSR Congress Party.
A former Rajya Sabha member, Venkateswara Rao was elected to Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Congress ticket from Parchur in 2004 and 2009. He had been staying away from active politics after his defeat in 2019 from the same constituency as the YSR Congress candidate.
Though Chandrababu Naidu and Venkateswara Rao had differences and were never seen together for three decades, Purandeswari and her sister Bhuvaneswari (Naidu’s wife) maintained the family ties.
--IANS
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