For the last five years, Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu has been staying at a private residence taken on rent from Lingamaneni Ramesh near Vundavalli on the banks of Krishna river.
When he was the chief minister, his government had also taken the adjacent place on lease for construction of “Praja Vedika” to conduct his party meetings and also meet people who came to him to submit grievances. The government used to pay rent both for his house and also Praja Vedika.
Now that Naidu is out of power, he has no other place to stay in Amaravati. Having no other option, he wrote a letter to YSR Congress party president and new chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday, requesting that he be allowed to continue in the same house located on the private property.
At the same time, he also requested Jagan to allow him to make use of Praja Vedika adjacent to his house to meet his party workers and also people coming from different parts of the state.
“Since there is no space in the residence to meet the people, I request you to allow me to use Praja Vedika, along with my residence,” Naidu said.
However, one wonders whether Jagan would allow him to continue to stay at Lingamaneni house, leave alone using the Praja Vedika.
Right from the beginning, YSRC leaders had been arguing that Lingamaneni house was an unauthorised construction on the bund of Krishna river and was leased out to Naidu on quid pro quo basis.
So, if the new government thinks it is an unauthorised construction, it will not allow Naidu to stay there and would ask him to look for an alternative arrangement. But if Jagan adopts a lenient approach towards Naidu, he might allow him to continue there.