The sudden decision of Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu to address a public meeting in Telangana’s Khammam on Wednesday has raised many an eyebrow.
The TDP, which has been virtually defunct in Telangana after its poor show in the 2018 assembly elections, has not recovered after that.
It did not contest in the byelections also and did not win a single ward in December 2020 GHMC elections.
The party has been left with no prominent leaders, after the resignation of its former Telangana unit president L Ramana and his defection into the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) to become its MLC.
Another senior leader and former MLA Kothapalli Dayakar Rao and his wife Swarna Dayakar Rao also announced their resignation from the TDP. They might join the BJP soon.
Except leaders like Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy, Bakkani Narsimhulu and Arvind Kumar Goud, there are no leaders worth mentioning.
Yet, Naidu suddenly decided to rejuvenate the party in Telangana. He replaced Bakkani Narsimhulu with prominent BC leader Kasani Gyaneshwar Mudiraj and revamped the party structure. And now, he has chosen to address the public meeting at Khammam.
The TDP cadres made massive arrangements for Khammam meeting and ensured that Naidu got good crowds all along the route from Hyderabad to Khammam.
This is for the first time that Naidu is addressing a public meeting in Telangana after a gap of four years. Naidu last addressed a public meeting in Telangana during the 2018 assembly elections.
He along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a couple of meetings in Hyderabad and Khammam then.
Apparently, Naidu has chosen to activate the TDP in select areas where it has strong cadre even now and following among the people, besides of course, his community people who still have sympathy towards him.
“This is basically not to win any seats, but to turn the wave in favour of the BJP as part of the secret understanding. Maybe, he is expecting the BJP leadership to favour the TDP in Andhra Pradesh elections later,” an analyst observed.