As was made public would be the case yesterday itself, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao controversially abstained from welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shamshabad airport on the latter's visit to the city today.
Modi came to the city on an official visit to attend events at ICRISAT and Muchintal.
The official version was that the Chief Minister was not feeling well and so could not visit the airport to welcome the Prime Minister.
Officials also said that the Chief Minister might attend the Muchintal program if he felt well enough by then.
On behalf of the state government Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav welcomed the Prime Minister at the airport.
The government had deputed Yadav yesterday to welcome and later send off the Prime Minister.
Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP Mahender Reddy and other officials too were part of the welcome for the Prime Minister at the airport.
Some of the BJP leaders from the state including Dr K Laxman, Jithender Reddy, Raja Singh, D K Aruna and others too were present at the airport.
KCR's ongoing vitriolic spat with the BJP is speculated by many to be the reason he violated protocol and snubbed the PM. Given the power Modi wields in India today, it needs to be seen how much loss the people of the state will be put to due to the CM alienating the PM.