Movers and shakers greet Venkaiah

Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader and Vice Presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said ‘he never vied for any post, but posts themselves came behind him’.

Participating in a ‘Meet and Greet” programme organised at Madhapur, Venkaiah Naidu, during his first visit to the city after NDA selected his name for country’s Vice President post, said in his young age he became president of the State party unit.

“Later I became Union Minister and got an opportunity to work as party’s national president,” he said, adding that after taking responsibility as country’s Vice President, a new life would begin for him.

“The party is like my mother and I became emotional when my name was announced for the Vice President’s post thinking that he would have no connection with the party hereafter while discharging the constitutional post.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to control my emotions,” Naidu said. He said he was pained to keep away from the party which gave him respect and responsibility and had decided to leave politics in 2020 and render social service. He advised two Telugu States to resolve their issues amicably.

Venkaiah Naidu said when the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) emerged victorious in 1983, N T Rama Rao invited him to his party and offered Cabinet post. But, he said, he politely declined.

Refuting charges against him, Venkaiah said, “I never faced any pressure from my family members during my long political life. Children themselves made their career and they never depended on me. My family never got any benefit using my influence. It was very unfortunate that some people were levelling baseless allegations against my family members,” he clarified.

People from various walks of life, politicians and Ministers attended the function and greeted Venkaiah Naidu. Those who attended include Telangana Ministers K T Rama Rao, Naini Narasimha Reddy and Tummala Nageshwar Rao, MPs Sujana Choudhary,

Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, BJP State president Laxman, party MLAs G Kishan Reddy, Chintala Ramachandra Reddy, Congress senior leader K Jana Reddy, Lok Satta founder-president Jayaprakash Narayan, former DGPs Dinesh Reddy and Ramudu, ace film director Raghvendra Rao, actors Akkineni Nagarjuna, Daggubati Venkatesh, MP Muralimohan and others.