Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy met his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan, the latter's official residence in Hyderabad on Monday.
The meeting lasted for nearly six hours. The meeting assumes significance in the wake of country-wide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). While Jagan's party--YSRCP supported the CAA in the Parliament, KCR's party had voted against it.
Following criticism and apprehensions raised by the Muslim community against CAA, Jagan stated that NRC would not be implemented in the state. KCR is yet to make such an open statement in this regard. KCR also did not attend the Opposition parties meeting invited by the Congress against the CAA, NRC and NPR in New Delhi on Monday.
The agenda of their meeting was not officially announced but it is understood that the two CMs would have discussed the political developments at the Centre in the wake of ongoing protests against CAA, NPR and NRC.
However, according to the Telangana CMO, both the leaders discussed several issues regional and ‘national’ issues, without mentioning about the contentious CAA, NRC and NPR.
Both KCR and Jagan came to a consensus to divert Godavari water to Krishna, according to the press release. This was discussed in the previous meeting as well. This is the fourth meeting between KCR and Jagan since the latter assumed office in May last year.
The earlier meetings were focused on issues arising out of bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and sharing of river waters.
It is speculated that the CMs could have discussed a joint strategy over NPR in view of the demands from various sections, especially Muslims to halt the work on NPR as they believe it to be the first step for NRC. The work on NPR is scheduled from April 1.
Telangana Chief Minister is under pressure from its ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and other Muslim groups to stay NPR as done by Kerala and West Bengal. Rao has come under criticism for his silence over the NRC and NPR.