Coronavirus lockdown: Former CM Chandrababu Naidu back in Andhra Pradesh after two months

Amid the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown, TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu returned to Andhra Pradesh on Monday, after a gap of two months.

The former chief minister was confined to his home in Hyderabad since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Naidu, who lost to YSRCP’s Jaganmohan Reddy exactly one year back, was holding press conferences and meetings with party men through web applications. The three-time chief minister was taunted by the YSRCP leaders “for hiding in Hyderabad” when the state is facing an unprecedented pandemic crisis.

Follow live updates on coronavirus here

Naidu had earlier requested the state and the central government to allow him to visit the LG Polymers victims when the styrene gas leakage which claimed 12 lives happened in the port city earlier this month.

Last week, Naidu made a formal request to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments to allow him travel to Vizag. Following Telangana's nod, on Sunday AP DGP Gautam Sawang also permitted the former CM and his son Nara Lokesh movement from Hyderabad to Vizag by air and from Vizag to Amaravati by road.

In the permission letter, the top cop has pointed to the COVID-19 restrictions like on venturing out of people over 65 years, night curfews, containment-Red Zone perimeter controls and home quarantine for stranded people coming into AP.

The DGP mentioned the e-pass granted to Naidu as a special case.

However, the opposition leader could not visit LG vapors victims on Monday as flight service resumption in AP was deferred to Tuesday. In the morning, Naidu took the road route to his Amaravati residence. He was greeted by his party men at Kanchikacherla and other places of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh.