This minister is not known to stir out of his constituency. He rarely attends programmes outside his constituency. He doesn’t normally tour his own district, let alone the whole state. Such a minister, who is not known to visit other places, not just traveled for over 500 km and stayed throughout the programme of a Central minister. He sat through the whole event and his body language betrayed an utter deference and an abject surrender to the Central minister. Needless to say, the minister is the talk of the town these days

We are talking about AP’s finance minister Buggana Rajendranath. Buggana is not known to travel beyond his constituency of Dhone. He rarely visits Kurnool and skips even official outings. But Buggana did not only come hours before schedule and sat through the whole meeting of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman at Srikakulam. Nirmala came to visit the famed Ponduru khadi unit. Since the union finance minister was visiting, the protocol demanded that the state finance minister too should be present.

But, that’s not the only reason for Buggana’s presence. The fragile financial situation of the state is said to be the real reason for his visit. Buggana has been making regular rounds of Delhi for additional funds and for permissions to borrow from financial institutions. Only a few weeks ago, he went to Delhi to meet Nirmala Sitaraman. Now that she visited Srikakulam, Buggana did not want to miss another opportunity of pleading for funds.

Throughout the meeting, Nirmala Sitaraman sat imperiously, while Buggana was overtly obsequious. His body language, onlookers say, betrayed his respect towards the Union Finance Minister. Even days after the meeting, the AP Secretariat’s corridors are buzzing with the discussion over this meeting.