Chandrababu Naidu to meet Rahul Gandhi on Thursday: TDP sources
New Delhi, Nov 1 : TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is trying to unite the opposition parties to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year, will meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi here on Thursday, sources said.
According to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) sources, Naidu will meet Gandhi at his residence around 3:30 pm and they are likely to hold discussions for an alliance for the December 7 Assembly elections in Telangana.
They said the two parties are engaged in seat-sharing talks for the Assembly elections, and during the meeting the leaders will also discuss the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Naidu, a former BJP ally who quit the NDA early this year over the Centre's refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh, met BSP chief Mayawati, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha here in the national capital on October 27.
According to TDP sources, Naidu "coincidentally" met senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here earlier on Thursday.
The TDP chief is playing the role of a "facilitator" to bring together all opposition parties to stop the BJP juggernaut in the 2019 general elections, a party leader said.
So far, Naidu has kept his cards close to his chest on seeking support of the Congress to forge a united front ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
He had earlier said that his party would play a pivotal role in the 2019 polls and that regional parties would form government at the Centre, though he had ruled himself out of the prime ministerial race.
According to TDP sources, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav spoke to Naidu over the phone yesterday and the latter will visit Delhi every week to speed up the process of uniting opposition parties.
The TDP had earlier criticised the Congress on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Meeting with Gandhi is seen as fresh efforts to align with the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
After BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa resigned as Karnataka chief minister before a no-confidence vote just two days after being sworn in, Naidu had termed the saffron party a "back door party" trying to enter south India by "unfair" means.
The Andhra Pradesh government has also accused the Centre of not supporting it in the construction of the Polavaram irrigation project, Kadapa steel plant, building a new capital city, and doing a flip flop on special package for the state on the lines of Bundelkhand region.
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Chhattisgarh Vedanta power plant blast: Death toll rises to 24
Raipur (PTI): The death toll in a blast at the Vedanta power plant in Chhattisgarh's Sakti district has gone up to 24 with one more worker succumbing to injuries on Sunday, officials said.
Eleven other persons were undergoing treatment in different hospitals. Two of them were reported to be in critical condition, they said.
A worker, identified as Manish Kumar, a native of Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh, died during treatment at Raigarh medical college in the wee hours, a government official told PTI.
With this, the death toll has gone up to 24 in the incident that occurred on April 14.
The explosion occurred in a steel tube carrying high-pressure steam from the boiler to the turbine at the Vedanta Ltd power plant located in Singhitarai village, leaving several workers with severe burn injuries.
According to officials, four workers died on the spot, while nine others succumbed to injuries soon after the incident. Seven more injured workers succumbed to injuries in hospitals on April 15, while another worker died on April 16 at a hospital in Raipur. Two more workers died in hospitals on Saturday.
The deceased include seven labourers from West Bengal, five from Chhattisgarh, four from Jharkhand, four from Uttar Pradesh, and two each from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
Of the 11 injured, six are admitted to Jindal Hospital, Raigarh, and two each at Balaji Metro Hospital and Apex Hospital, Raigarh. Another worker is undergoing treatment at Shri Shankara Hospital, Raipur, an official said.
Of them, two are critical, he said.
Police have registered an FIR under sections related to causing death by negligence and negligent conduct with machinery.
"Eight to ten individuals, including Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal and plant head Devendra Patel, have been named in the FIR. If more persons are found responsible during the investigation, their names will be added," Sakti Superintendent of Police Prafull Thakur had said.
A preliminary technical investigation into the blast found that excessive fuel accumulation inside the boiler furnace led to a pressure build-up, triggering the explosion, police officials earlier said.
A report by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Sakti also confirmed that the accumulation of fuel and the resulting excessive pressure were the primary causes of the explosion, they said.
Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had directed the Bilaspur divisional commissioner to conduct a probe into the incident.
The Sakti district administration has also ordered a magisterial probe into the incident.
The Opposition Congress has demanded that stricter charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder be invoked in the case.
