Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Chandrababu Naidu will travel to Varanasi on September 17 to join the celebrations marking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 76th birthday, bringing a key NDA ally to the Prime Minister’s parliamentary constituency on a day of national political significance.
He is also scheduled to visit the Kashi Vishwanath Temple before returning to Vijayawada in the evening. The TDP and BJP have worked together at the national level in the past, including during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. Because varanasi is PM Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, while Vadnagar in Gujarat is his birthplace, the September 17 programme has an added symbolic dimension.
Chandrababu Naidu also 76, is scheduled to leave for Varanasi by a special flight at 10.05 am. He will participate in the Seva Sankalp Abhiyan programme at the Rudraksha International Convention Centre at around 1 pm, alongside senior leaders attending the celebrations, according to Andhra Pradesh government sources. Chandrababu Naidu again joined hands with the BJP in the 2014 elections, when he and PM Modi campaigned as alliance partners. The TDP subsequently returned to the NDA in 2024, with Chandrababu Naidu becoming an important ally in the formation of the Modi-led government after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has planned a month-long Seva Sankalp Abhiyan from September 17 to October 17 to mark 25 years of PM Modi’s public life. For the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu, the Prime Minister’s birthday programme highlights the renewed political partnership between the two parties and their continuing association within the NDA sends a clear message to the state where BJP Janasena, and TDP are all in power assembly elections parliamentary and assembly elections which will be held together in 2029.
