Hyderabad:
Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, former party president Bangaru Laxman and several retired bureaucrats were among those who met Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is slated to address a public meeting in Hyderabad today at 4:30 pm.
Besides the BJP leaders, former Union Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah, ex-DGP Gopinath Reddy, former VSNL Chairman T Hanuman Chowdary, Care Hospitals Chairman K Somaraju, prominent backward classes leader R Krishnaiah, Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) leader Manda Krishna Madiga met Mr Modi at a private hotel in the city, an official release said.
Mr Modi was accorded a grand welcome by the BJP leaders when he arrived at the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad on Sunday morning to address 'Navabharata Yuvabheri' (youth convention for a new India) at the Lal Bahadur stadium.
This will be Mr Modi's first public meeting in the Andhra Pradesh capital after being appointed the BJP's poll panel chief in June.
Police have made elaborate security arrangements for the rally and imposed traffic restrictions near the venue.
Mr Modi would kick-start the BJP's election campaign with a call to the people to "free the country from Congress' misrule", Mr Naidu had said earlier.
During his day-long visit to the city, Mr Modi would interact with the BJP state unit office-bearers and unveil a statue of Sardar Patel at a school.