Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will spend a busy day in the national capital on Monday, August 22, meeting President Draupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others. The first and significant item on his itinerary is a meeting with the Prime Minister where he will discuss all state-related issues. CM Jagan left for the national capital on Sunday evening from Gannavaram Airport at Vijayawada. According to his travel schedule, after reaching Delhi at 9.15 pm, he would stay at 1 Janpath residence and meet the Prime Minister at 10.15 am on Monday. He is likely to discuss various state-related issues with Modi.
Issues related to the Polavaram project and its Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) package are likely to be discussed, and Jagan is likely to urge PM Modi to expedite the release of pending funds for the project. The Chief Minister is once again likely to request the Prime Minister to address the pending issues in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. This will be his second meeting with the Prime Minister in less than three months. The previous meeting between the two took place on June 2.
During the previous meeting, Jagan had requested Modi to approve the revised cost estimates for the Polavaram project and to provide the R&R package to the displaced families through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for transparency. He had appealed to the Prime Minister to approve the revised cost estimates of Rs 55,548.87 crore as the Technical Advisory Committee has already approved the same. The Chief Minister had also raised several issues including compensation of revenue deficit, NREGS, and sanction of additional medical colleges.
Speculation is once again rife that the issue of the YSR Congress Party joining the NDA government could be on their meeting agenda, though the party leaders have been maintaining a silence on this. The YSRC has been maintaining a "very friendly" relationship with the BJP in the Union government since the former came to power in May 2019. Now that the NDA is said to be looking for new alliance partners following the exit of the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), it is speculated that the YSRCP may be offered berths in the Union Cabinet. This may also suit YSRCP's game plan of ensuring that the BJP does not re-align with the Telugu Desam Party. If that happens, the political equations in AP will change in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
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