TDP confident of strengthening base in Telangana

Hyderabad: Undeterred by the exit of its 13 MLAs and other key leaders in Telangana, the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) state unit is hopeful of emerging stronger in the next elections. The TDP, led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, had won 15 Assembly segments and a Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana in the 2014 state and general elections, respectively.

However, since then its 12 MLAs and the lone MP have switched over to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). The party received further setback as the Telangana unit’s working president and MLA A Revanth Reddy recently joined the Congress along with a considerable number of state and district-level functionaries.
The TDP is now left with just two MLAs in Telangana.

“I don’t see any crisis. We have lakhs of members, thousands of activists and hundreds of leaders. We feel we are out of disturbances. Our responsibility is to take forward the people’s struggles more effectively,” the TDP’s Telangana unit president, L Ramana, told PTI. He said people still remember the development works and services carried out by the party when it was in power (in the undivided Andhra Pradesh).

The TDP, in the coming days, would reach out to the people by strengthening its district units and making the party cadre more active, Ramana said. Chandrababu Naidu, who shifted his base to Vijayawada where the permanent capital city of Andhra Pradesh is coming up, addressed the general body meeting of the TDP’s Telangana unit in Hyderabad last week.

He visits Hyderabad occasionally after shifting to Vijayawada. While addressing the meeting, Naidu asked the party activists to focus on strengthening the organisation and leave the task of formulating strategy to him.
“I too have experience…what to speak and what to do when and what strategy to follow, you leave it to me. You keep faith in people. Work with the party’s flag. It is my responsibility to give you direction and strategy from time-to-time,” the chief minister said.

Ramana said the leadership of Naidu, who brought the party back to power in Andhra Pradesh, is a great blessing and source of support to the TDP in Telangana. Notably, the ruling TRS is presently the most dominant political force in Telangana having scored resounding victories in the 2014 polls, followed by huge successes in different bypolls in the state.