KCR vows to offer prayers as CM again

​Vijayawada: Bonhomie and light-hearted banter dominated Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s visit to Vijayawada where he offered a diamond nose stud to the presiding deity Goddess Kanaka Durga atop Indrakeeladri hillock.

By donating the ornament, KCR has redeemed his vow for creation of Telangana state. Before leaving, Vijayawada, KCR said he would return to Vijayawada again as Chief Minister to offer prayers to the Goddess, hinting that he did not foresee any difficulty in his re-election.

There was no bitterness or rancor any longer during his visit to Vijayawada which used to characterised the relations between TDP and TRS before the division of the state. From the moment he touched down at Gannavaram Airport along with his family in a special aircraft, KCR, with his characteristic savoir-faire drove through the city, inquiring about the development that was taking place in Vijayawada and elsewhere.

The Telangana Chief Minister felt very happy that after he donated the diamond nose stud in whose preparation he had shown much personal interest, the priests had decorated it to the deity in his presence amidst chanting of Vedic hymns. He wanted to speak to his AP counterpart Chandrababu Naidu to thank him but when he was told that he was away in Srikakulam, for inauguration of Eruvaka programme, he decided to speak to him after his return to Hyderabad in the evening.

When KCR drove up to the Indrakeeladri, he was surprised to see a revamped temple. "The temple I knew was different and the one that is in front of me is different," he said as he was shown around by the temple authorities.

It was his second visit to Vijayawada- Amaravati after the division of the state in 2014. In October 2015, he attended the function where Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Amaravati near Vijayawada.

As soon as he arrived at the airport in the morning, KCR was in for a surprise. The little god-forsaken airstrip with dilapidated building serving as its terminal was gone and, in its place, stood a new and elegant one with a number of facilities for the air-travelers. As he drove down to the temple, he felt impressed with the decked-up road and the greenery that has been developed.

KCR was also appreciative of the interest the government has taken in widening the roads in Vijayawada. The arterial road - Mahatma Gandhi Road which is also known as Bandar Road - came in for a word of praise from the visiting dignitary. “This road is now much better. It used to be different in the past.

The city appears to have gone through a sea change over the last few years," he said pointing out a number of commercial complexes and buildings that had come up on either side of the road which was once a desolate stretch with only government buildings here and there. KCR also recalled the Pundit Nehru Bus Station which was the brainchild of the late NT Rama Rao. He took a visit down memory lane and reminisced on the role he had played in its construction as transport minister then.

The bus station was known as the largest in Asia then and NTR had named it Satavahana Prayana Pranganam but it was changed to Pundit Nehru Bus station by the late Dr M Channa Reddy who became the Chief Minister following a change of guard at Hyderabad. KCR was accompanied by his deputy Naini Narasimha Rao, Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao and Minister A Indrakaran Reddy.