Common Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana ESl Narasimhan left for New Delhi on Thursday evening on the summon from the Union Government. Amid growing concerns in New Delhi over Hyderabad turning into a battle ground between the two States, the Governor will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.
His visit to Delhi has come at a time when Telangana Anti- Corruption Bureau was getting ready to serve a notice on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in cash -for-vote scam. ACB has got a shot in the arm with the State Forensic Science laboratory submitting its preliminary report to the court declaring that the video and audio tapes related to the case were genuine and free of any tampering or editing. These included an audio tape of alleged phone conversation between Naidu and nominated Telangana MlA Elvis Stephenson.
On the basis of this report, ACB was now planning to serve a notice on Naidu asking him to give a sample of his voice for comparison with the voice on the tape. Narasimhan, who is under tremendous pressure from both Andhra and Telangana, was also likely to meet President Pranab Mukherji who is scheduled to arrive in Hyderabad on Sunday for his ten day sojourn.
The visit was being watched keenly by the political circles here in view of the raging controversy over Section 8. While Andhra was demanding that the powers of law and order in Hyderabad should be vested in the Governor under the Section 8 of AP State Reorganisation Act, Telangana was opposing it tooth and nail.
AP’s Telugu Desam Government started the demand for invoking Section 8 after the cash-for-vote scam involving a TDP MlA hit the headlines late last month. While Telangana Government was pressing ahead with its investigations in to the scandal in which TDP tried to bribe a nominated MlA Elvis Stephenson, AP was demanding that the Governor should take over the law and order in Hyderabad in his hands.