For the first time, the birthday celebrations of Telugu Desam Party founder and former chief minister N T Rama Rao were held in a completely lack-lustred manner on Tuesday, as the party faced humiliating defeat in the just concluded assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
After a gap of five days, Naidu surfaced in public at the TDP headquarters in Guntur to pay homage to his father-in-law.
Though hundreds of TDP workers attended the celebrations, the euphoria among them was glaringly missing as they looked dejected over the defeat of the party.
Naidu himself looked very pale and dull, as he garlanded the statue of NTR and addressed the party workers briefly.
The fire in his voice was missing as he made a routine address saying the party had strength and workers have the moral courage to withstand the turbulence.
“The TDP workers had made immense sacrifices. We did our best to provide good governance to the state and took up the development and welfare programmes. NTR should be an inspiration to us. He did not lose courage despite facing several setbacks. We should learnt from his experiences and play a constructive role in the opposition,” Naidu said.
He further said he would be available to party leaders and cadre at Guntur office from Wednesday.
He said he would spend at least three hours in Guntur party office and monitor party affairs regularly.
NTR's grandson and former minister Nara Lokesh also participated in the programme along with TDP state president Kala Venkatrao, senior leaders Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Prattipati Pulla Rao and Nakka Ananda Babu.