Sounding the death knell of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana, its key state unit leaders and legislators E Dayakar Rao and Prakash Goud on Wednesday quit the party to join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, thus plucking one of Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘two eyes’.
In the Telangana Legislative Council, the TDP has no representation and in the just-concluded GHMC polls the party’s candidate won from the Kukatpally division and that corporator too is ready to switch loyalties.
Both the legislators met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and later they were formally inducted into the party. With this, the number of TDP legislators who have ‘safely’ joined the TRS has risen to 10, thus paving the way for the rump of the TDP group in the Assembly to lawfully merge with the TRS!
In the 2014 General Election, the TDP won 15 seats in the Telangana State. So, if the TDP splinter group now claims that they are formally merging with the TRS, it would not attract the provisions of the anti-defection law. The TDP legislators who joined the TRS are expected to give a formal letter in this regard to TS Legislative Assembly Speaker Madhusudhana Chary, who may allow them to exercise their option.
The TDP will now be left with five legislators -- R Krishnaiah, Revanth Reddy, Venkata Veeraiah, A Gandhi, and Rajender Reddy. All along Krishnaiah has maintained that he belongs to no political party, though he had been elected on a TDP ticket. He seeks to project himself more as the champion of the Backward Classes; and hence, might prefer to play a neutral role in the hope of enlisting the support any of the principal political parties for the BC cause whenever needed.
Revanth Reddy has no chance of joining the TRS as of now, considering he had led the TDP’s vitriolic attack on the TRS government so far and also because he is the prime accused in the ‘note for vote’ scam that bruised the TDP. Although he is not immediately weighing the option of deserting the TDP, should there be need he might switch to the Congress party, as an alternative destination, if not now, at least some time later.
Sathupalli MLA Venkata Veeraiah too might shift his loyalties to the TRS shortly. He is also among the TDP leaders accused in the note for vote case. With the entire TDP lot switching loyalties to TRS in Khammam district, along with Tummala Nageswar Rao, he is under pressure from his followers to follow suit. The TDP office building in Khammam has worn a deserted look ever since Tummala was inducted into the KCR’s cabinet.
In the Telangana Legislative Council, the TDP has no representation and in the just-concluded GHMC polls the party’s candidate won from the Kukatpally division and that corporator too is ready to switch loyalties. All these factors and developments will now make the TDP a non-entity as far as the T State is concerned and it will now have to confine itself to Andhra Pradesh state.
TDP founder and supremo NT Rama Rao used to proclaim that the TDP would wither away along with him. It may not have happened then, but the process seems to have begun now. As far as Telangana State is concerned, TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao seems to prepared the ground for burying the TDP in Telangana, leaving no scope for its revival.
Sounding apologetic, Dayakar Rao told followers, activists of the TDP in the T State: “I have tried my best to protect the party. But going by the outcome of Warangal by-polls and the recently concluded GHMC polls, I have realised that the TDP has no chance of survival in the State. I have lot of respect for TDP founder N T Rama Rao. With folded hands, I seek the pardon of the TDP followers that I have to leave the party as it is becoming fast extinct.”
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