Speculations rife over Naidu-Pawar meeting

NEW DELHI: It could have been an innocuous meeting, but not in the current context when the Congress is trying to keep its UPA flock intact. The Delhi political circles were, therefore, abuzz with speculations over TDP supremo and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu’s sudden meeting with Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday. More so as there’s a certain chill in the Congress-NCP relations over the recent dissolution of board of directors of Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) controlled by the Maratha party.It escaped no one’s notice that Pawar was a reluctant participant in the PM’s Sunday dinner and chose to stay away from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s table. Being an old hand at coalition politics, Babu, however, parried questions about the politics behind the meeting. He preferred to give an impression that it was all about the plight of Andhra farmers and that he was trying extract a promise from the minister to lift ban on rice export.The meeting, however, was designed to give both sides political leverage. Babu, for one, can do with little help from Pawar on the farmers’ issue, given the way YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is virtually monoplising the politics in the coastal and Rayalaseema areas, and cutting deep into not just Congress vote bank, but TDP’s as well.  Pawar could also brandish the meeting, to keep the Congress camp in a tizzy. Naidu was informed by Pawar that the government would convene a meeting next week to discuss the issue of exporting rice. TDP leader demanded that the Centre should ensure MSP for paddy, besides implementing the recommendations of MS Swaminthan committee on the issue.