Hyderabad: Calling former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu a “visionary”, veteran actor and superstar Rajinikanth said Friday it was Naidu’s vision of developing Andhra Pradesh that would take the state to great heights in the country in the coming years.
Pitching for another term for the former CM, the superstar, who has mostly steered away from making political comments, said, “Naidu is planning on developing Andhra Pradesh with a Vision 2047, and if that project gets implemented, Andhra will reach great heights in India. And, I hope that almighty gives Naidu the strength and power to implement it.”
Andhra Pradesh is set for assembly polls in 2024.
Rajinikanth was in Vijayawada Friday to attend the year-long birth centenary celebrations of legendary actor-turned-politician N.T. Rama Rao. The event was organised by Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party.
NTR, Naidu’s father-in-law, was the founder of the Telugu Desam Party, now led by Naidu.
Naidu has faced severe criticism for betraying his father-in-law and toppling his government to take control of the TDP in 1995. Of late, Naidu has been quite vocal about this issue and has argued that the move was necessary.
At Friday’s event, Rajinikanth at length praised NTR for the multiple roles he donned — from a superstar actor to a politician — adding that he jumped with joy when NTR won one of the elections.
Seeking the Bharat Ratna for NTR, Naidu in his speech asserted that the former CM had fought for the pride of the Telugu people. Rajinikanth emphasised that NTR had left a life of luxury to represent the people.
Calling Naidu a friend of over three decades, the actor said the former CM had spoken about the Information Technology (IT) industry boom in the late nineties when no one had even thought about it.
“He (Naidu) spoke about ‘Vision 2020’ in 1996 and how the IT industry would become a boom — something that no one had thought about back then. Business tycoons like Bill Gates had appreciated (Naidu) and then set up their companies,” Rajinikanth said.
Apart from the superstar’s presence, what also got the conversation rolling was the absence of ‘RRR’ movie star Jr. NTR, the legendary actor’s grandson. He had once, in the past, campaigned for Naidu. NTR’s daughter Daggubati Purandeswari, a national general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, also did not attend the event.
Recalling his visit to Hyderabad and comparing it to New York City, the Tamil veteran actor praised Naidu for the city’s development. Rajinikanth also mentioned Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, while talking about Hyderabad’s growth.
The actor also gave credit to Naidu for encouraging the migration of the Telugu population to work in IT industries abroad.
Terming Naidu as a “world leader” and “someone who knows about world politics” the actor said, “My experience says I should not speak about politics, but I am having to talk about it because we have a veteran political leader (Naidu).”
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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