It appears Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is desperately trying to keep his flock together so that there would be no defections from the TDP to the YSR Congress party or Bharatiya Janata Party.
It was evident from the way Naidu announced a jumbo committee for the TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit on Friday. Apparently, the TDP chief does not to displease any senior leader, who he thought, has the chances of defecting to the other party.
The state committee of the TDP comprise, in all, 219 office bearers, including 18 vice-presidents and 16 general secretary posts to 16. There are over 108 state level secretaries and treasurers, besides a large number of spokespersons.
Looking at the committee, it was very clear that Naidu has not left anybody in the party who he thinks is still with the party.
The TDP chief claimed that top priority given to the backward classes and the weaker sections in the appointment of posts. He said over 61 per cent representations was given to them on the State Committee.
Of this, 41 per cent posts were given to the BCs, reflecting the TDP's traditional patronage of the backward classes since its inception. Care was taken to provide 50 per cent representation to the sub castes in the respective categories.
The new vice presidents of the TDP are as follows: Nimmala Kistappa, Prathipati Pulla Rao, Jyothula Nehru, Gollapalli Surya Rao, Bandaru Satyananda Rao, Parasa Ratnam, Datla Subba Raju, Pidathala Sai Kalpana Reddy, Buragadda Veda Vyas, Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao, BV Jaya Nageswara Reddy, YVB Rajendra Prasad, G. Tippe Swamy, V. Hanumantharaya Chowdary, Putta Narasimha Reddy, Damacherla Janardhan Rao, Sridhar Krishna Reddy and Vemuri Ananda Surya.
The state general secretaries are Payyavula Keshav, Anagani Satya Prasad, Devineni Uma, N. Amarnath Reddy, Bhuma Akhila Priya, Md Nazeer, Dola Balaveeranjaneya Swamy, BT Naidu, Ganni Krishna, Panchumarthy Anuradha, Bathyala Chengalrayudu, Gouthu Sirisha, Duvvarapu Rama Rao, Buddha Venkanna, Chintakayala Vijay and Maddipati Venkat Raju.
Nallari Kishore Kumar Reddy has been appointed as the TDP's Central Committee general secretary.