The issue of rescuing the Andhra Pradesh pilgrims stranded in flood-hit Uttarakhand State has taken a political colour with the Opposition Telugu Desam Party taking a plunge and arranging a special flight to bringing the people back.

Taking a leaf from the book of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s book, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu rushed to Dehradun by a special aircraft to oversee the relief and rescue operations for the pilgrims from the State.

Naidu, who returned from the United States on Sunday took a team of his party MPs and other leaders to help in bringing back the people.

Party sources said that a special aircraft carrying 196 stranded pilgrims has been arranged by Naidu and it will land in Hyderabad later on Monday night. The party had also made arrangements of buses to take these people to their respective destination. The party has also opened a call centre at the NTR Trust Bhavan in Hyderabad to provide information to the families of the stranded and missing people in Uttarakhand. The party has also set up enquiry and help desks at Secunderabad, Kazipet and Vijaywada stations.

Naidu, who wrote a letter to Railway Minister Malikarjun Kharge and other Ministers demanding arrangements to bring back the stranded pilgrims, decided to take the matters in his hand in view of the growing discontent and outcry against the slow pace of the evacuation and safe return of the people.

While Chandrababu Naidu was personally meeting the stranded State pilgrims in Dehradun, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy contacted his Uttarakhand counterpart Vijay Bahugana over phone and urged him to extend every possible help to the stranded pilgrims of his State. The Chief Minister also reviewed the relief situation in a meeting with the officials.

Two Ministers from Andhra Pradesh, Union Minister Balram Nayak and State Minister Sridhar Babu also met Vijay Bahugana in Dehradun and sought help for the pilgrims from Andrha Pradesh. 

Meanwhile, the officials of disaster management department in Hyderabad announced that a total of 2,715 people from 20 districts of the State had gone for Char Dham yatra to Uttarkhand and about 1,800 to 2,000 had returned home.

State Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, who was on a visit to Visakhapatanam told the reporters there that eight pilgrims from the State had died and another 33 people were missing. “We have made all the necessary arrangements to help the stranded pilgrims. The Chief Minister did not go in view of the appeal to the Uttarakhand Government to the VIPs not to come there as it will hamper the relief work”, he said.

The State Congress president Botsa Satyanarayana, however found fault with Chandrababu Naidu rushing to Dehradun and said that such visits will only create problems in relief work. He denied the allegations that the State Government had failed in coming to the rescue of the stranded pilgrims in the face of unprecedented natural calamity. He sent a team of ministers “The CM immediately responded to the situation”, he said adding that he had also gone to Delhi to help pilgrims.