No one has called Jaganmohan Reddy a Nero who fiddled while Rome burnt simply because the YSR Congress chief is not in charge of Andhra Pradesh. But given the bitter rivalry between the YSRCP and the Telugu Desam, the timing of his movie outing the evening before Cyclone Fani crossed the Odisha coast, impacting Srikakulam district of north-coastal Andhra Pradesh, has given political fodder to the TDP to target him with.

Jagan is reported to have watched `Avengers : Endgame’ with his family members at the AMB Cinemas in Hyderabad on Thursday. The multiplex incidentally is owned by Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu, whose brother-in-law industrialist Jaydev Galla is the TDP MP from Guntur. 

At Chandrababu Naidu’s press conference in Amaravati to brief about the rescue and relief operations that the Andhra government had undertaken in the affected districts, a reporter pointed out to the CM that Jagan had watched the movie. Naidu did not let go the opportunity to take a dig at his bete noire. 

“Let him see, what can he do? Our government will take care of the state here. While you (media) and I were busy working for the people of Andhra Pradesh in the last five years, where was Jagan. He has been nicely enjoying in Hyderabad with the protection of the KCR government. The film may be Endgame but it is not endgame for us,” said Naidu.

Naidu has consistently attacked Jagan for staying in Hyderabad while doing his politics in Andhra Pradesh. With the barbs getting more shrill, the YSRC chief conducted the puja at his newly constructed residence in Tadepalli in the capital region of Andhra early this year but continues to operate out of his Lotus Pond residence in Hyderabad. Even during the election campaign, Jagan would frequently return to Hyderabad. The buzz was that it was to avoid tracking of his important meetings by intelligence sleuths of the Andhra Pradesh police, reporting to Naidu. 

This is not the first time Naidu has underlined the Jagan-KCR political friendship. During the election campaign, he had termed Jagan-KCR-Narendra Modi as a team that was out to create trouble for him.