PM Modi reaches Hyderabad, Telangana CM stays away

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Hyderabad on Saturday on a six-hour visit but Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao stayed away from welcoming him.

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, union minister for tourism and culture G. Kishan Reddy and state minister for animal husbandry Talasani Srinivas Yadav received the Prime Minister at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy and other top officials welcomed Modi.

Chandrasekhar Rao, who has been openly attacking the Prime Minister, stayed away from receiving him.

Rao had nominated minister Srinivas Yadav as the Minister-in-Waiting to receive and see off the Prime Minister.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, is also not likely to share the stage with Modi when the latter will unveil the 216-feet-high Statue of Equality at Muchintal near Shamshabad in the evening.

After landing at the airport, the Prime Minister left for Patancheru in a helicopter.

He will inaugurate the golden jubilee celebrations of International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). He will also launch ICRISAT's Climate Change Research Facility on Plant Protection and Rapid Generation Advancement Facility and unveil a specially designed logo and a commemorative postal stamp.

After the program at ICRISAT, Modi will arrive at the airport at 4.50 p.m. and leave for Chinna Jeer Swamy's ashram at Muchintal by road. He will spend three hours there to participate in pooja and dedicate the statue of Saint Ramanujacharya.