‘Softer’ Chandrababu Naidu hits Telangana TDP leaders hard

Hyderabad: The increasingly ‘soft’ approach adopted by Telugu Desam Party national president N. Chandrababu Naidu towards TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is leading to disquiet among TS TD leaders.

The undercurrents of heartburn and unease are all too evident, but the TS TD leaders prefer to express in private their displeasure and disappointment at Mr Naidu’s stance, especially at a time when the party is poised to take on the TRS in civic body polls for the GHMC and Khammam Municipal Corporation, and bypolls for the Narayankhed Assembly and Warangal Lok Sabha seats.

On Monday, Mr Naidu had reportedly told the TS TD leaders that he may accept the invitation for the Chandi Yagam planned by Mr Chandrasekhar Rao at his Erravalli farmhouse next month, to reciprocate the latter’s gesture when he attended the Amaravati foundation stone laying function.

Mr Naidu repeated his advice to his party’s TS leaders that they should concentrate on strengthening the TD’s base in TS on their own, without expecting much from him. At present, there is hardly any unity among the top-rung TS TD leaders. Despite many appeals by Mr Naidu, leaders like Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Revanth Reddy have still not patched up.

Joining the list is the party’s newly-appointed Hyderabad city president and MLA Maganti Gopinath, who decided to toe an independent line, keeping the interests of the party’s city unit, without having a connect to the state unit.

At this point of time, the TD’s national president ruling out his frequent interventions and monitoring of the party affairs in TS has left the leaders uneasy. Besides this, Mr Naidu told them that he, being the head of AP government, needs to maintain cordial relations with his counterpart in TS in order to resolve disputes between the two states.

“With his soft approach towards KCR, we are now left in the lurch. Our chief used to be more aggressive in his approach towards KCR, he has suddenly changed his approach. Does this mean that we should change accordingly?” asked a senior leader from Warangal.

“Already, there is no unity among the leaders here. Mr Naidu used to coordinate and we used to follow his instructions. If he is not going to be at the helm of affairs, TD leaders will start quarrelling and will act according to their whims, which will not bode well for the party,” a senior TD leader from Nizamabad said.

More than Mr Naidu’s regular monitoring, the TS TD is in need of finances to function. “If Mr Naidu decides to stay away from us, who will come forward to help us financially?” asked another leader. It’s an accepted fact that any Opposition party that is cash-starved cannot take up the political activities that can create an impact.

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