Vajpayee, Naidu meet at Puttaparthi

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The Hindu, Andhra Pradesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper

 

Friday, Feb 13, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Vajpayee, Naidu meet at Puttaparthi

By the Staff Reporter

 

PUTTAPARTHI, FEB. 12. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was

given a warm send-off by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, at

Sri Satya Sai airport here today. Mr. Vajpayee spent almost 16 hours

in the spiritual town.

 

Mr. Vajpayee had general darshan of Satya Saibaba for 45 minutes

and special darshan for 15 minutes last evening. Along with Mr.

Naidu, Mr. Vajpayee participated in general darshan of Saibaba at the

Sai Kulwanth auditorium for 75 minutes in the morning. They also

sought his blessings and participated in the devotional chanting of

bhajans.

 

The Prime Minister, along with his entourage, left for New Delhi in

the special IAF aircraft at 10.25 a.m. Several TDP and BJP leaders,

besides senior police and revenue officials, were present during the

send-off.

 

Last night, Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Naidu had a one-to-one meeting.

Though there was no definite information about what transpired during

the hour-long meeting, it is learnt that they had mainly discussed

strengthening the NDA in the State and ways of containing the

Congress elsewhere in the country.

 

Seat-sharing between the TDP and the BJP, particularly at a time

when State leaders of the BJP are demanding more seats this time, was

also said to have figured in their discussion. The BJP had contested

24 Assembly seats and eight Lok Sabha seats during the last elections

though the party was allotted 25 Assembly seats. Mr. Naidu is learnt

to have asked the Prime Minister to release the pending Central

funds.

 

Source:

http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/13/stories/2004021302730600.htm