Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister quietly disappeared from the scene and left for Dubai on Thursday when the entire state was burning with agitations and coming to a standstill in protest against the injustice done to the state in the Union budget.
Naidu left for Dubai on Wednesday evening itself in the name of a road show to attracting investors to the Partnership Summit to be held in Visakhapatnam in the last week of February.
Though the programme was fixed long ago, Naidu could have afforded to miss it and send his official delegation, including his cabinet ministers, to Dubai and stayed back in Vijayawada in the wake of strong resentment brewing among the people of the state.
He asked his party leaders to stage dharnas in all mandal and district headquarters to express their solidarity with the opposition parties participating in bandh.
But the impact would have been more had Naidu himself took part in rallies and addressed the people in the open questioning the Centre over the injustice meted out to the state.
In fact, it is not unusual that the ruling party of the state calling for bandhs or participating in agitations against the Centre. It happened in the past as well. And that would have a bigger impact on the Centre.
In this aspect, his rival YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has earned more brownie points over Naidu by giving a break to his padayatra and taking part in the bandh and agitation.
However, Naidu tried to cover up his inability by allowing all the government educational institutions to close down, besides taking the state-run Road Transport Corporation buses off the roads. He also asked the police not to create any troubles for the protestors. #KhabarLive