It was a rare scene in politics at Rajampet in Annamayya district of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday.
Two former chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, who were once bitter critics of each other, shared the common dais and exchanged greetings.
They were: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for Rajampet seat Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy. Perhaps, they were shaking hands with each other after a gap of more than 10 years.
Naidu, along with Kiran Kumar Reddy and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan, addressed “Praja Galam” public rally at Rajampet, were Kiran Kumar Reddy filed his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections on the BJP ticket.
The TDP chief was all praise for Kiran Kumar Reddy, describing him as man of integrity, hailing from the family of freedom fighters and politicians. He appealed to the voters to elect him to Lok Sabha with huge majority.
When Kiran Kumar Reddy was in the Congress party as a loyalist of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, he was in the forefront in attacking Naidu, both in the opposition and the ruling party.
When Naidu was in the opposition during the YSR regime, Kiran was the chief whip in the first term and used to go hammer and tongs at Naidu.
In YSR’s second term, Kiran was the speaker of the state assembly and created a tough time for Naidu.
After the death of YSR in 2009 and the end of tenure of veteran leader Rosaiah in 2010, Kiran became the chief minister and there were regular attacks and counterattacks between him and Naidu, who was the opposition leader.
Post-bifurcation of combined state, Kiran lost his career, while Naidu became the chief minister. After being in oblivion for a decade, Kiran was back into the politics, first by returning to the Congress and then defecting into the BJP.
Now, Naidu is aiming at returning to power in AP and Kiran is trying to get back into power politics by winning the Rajampet seat. And that brought both of these bitter enemies together!