Hyderabad: After the Warangal Lok Sabha bypoll debacle, the Telugu Desam’s Greater Hyderabad unit wants to play a greater role in the forthcoming GHMC polls, demanding that there should be no interference by the party’s state leadership.
A batch of leaders from the TD’s city unit, led by its president and MLA Maganti Gopinath met TD national president N. Chandrababu Naidu and conveyed their views to him. They appealed to Mr Naidu to campaign for the party in the GHMC polls since he enjoys immense credibility among the voters due to his work as the Chief Minister during 1995-2004. According to sources, Mr Naidu told them he would find time to campaign in the GHMC polls.
It is a fact that both Mr Naidu and his son, TD national general-secretary Nara Lokesh did not campaign in the Warangal bypoll. It is also a fact that they both stopped visiting the city and have been concentrating their activities in AP. Mr Naidu has even gone on record saying that the TS TD leaders need to stand on their own legs and due to his hectic schedule in Vijayawada, he cannot involve himself in the party affairs in TS as often as he would want to.
However, the TS TD leaders say that unless Mr Naidu and Mr Lokesh play an active role, it would not be possible for the TD to stage a comeback in the city.
It was decided that the TD and BJP will forge an alliance in the GHMC polls as the two parties had bagged 15 of the 24 Assembly seats in 2014 general elections.
The TD city unit leaders told Mr Naidu that under the pretext of “state leaders”, the TS TD should not interfere either in the negotiations with the BJP or in the selection of candidates and the entire exercise should be left to them.
They are believed to have complained to the TS national president that some of the state leaders have colluded with the ruling TRS and it was evident in the Warangal bypoll wherein all the polling agents put by the TD state leaders sided with the TRS.
“Without having a killer instinct, we cannot take on the TRS or its election machine. For this, we need full freedom,” said a key leader from City TD unit.
When contacted, Mr Gopinath said, “We have requested Mr Naidu and Mr Lokesh to campaign and he told us that the request would be considered positively.”
Mr Gopinath refused to confirm the other details.
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