Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is strongly pitching for extension of lockdown for a further period.
He got a resolution to this effect passed at his party’s politburo meeting held through a video conference from Hyderabad on Thursday.
The party said in view of the growing number of positive cases of Coronavirus all over the country, the lockdown period should be extended for at least two weeks.
Well, it is a matter of a policy decision by the Centre and the state governments depending on the ground reality and they would not go by the demand or suggestion of Naidu, who is not even a strong political party.
In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not even bother to consult Naidu despite the fact that the latter was the chief minister of AP for 14 years and had vast administrative experience.
But why is the TDP chief keen on extension of lockdown period?
Sources close to the TDP circles say Naidu wants to see that the capital shift plan of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government gets delayed as long as it can.
He is, perhaps, of the view that the chief minister might not dare shift the capital to Visakhapatnam so easily because it involves huge expenditure for shifting as well as for paying incentives to the government officials.
“The economy is in complete disarray and it will take several months for the state to recover. Under these circumstances, if Jagan shifts the administrative capital to Viskahapatnam and create troubles for the officials, it will have serious repercussions on the economy,” Naidu is learnt to have told his party leaders.
In the meantime, Naidu is of the hope that the courts would intervene in the matter and the Centre, too, might not approve the capital shift under the existing circumstances.