A section of senior Telugu Desam leaders and aspirants of Cabinet berths are upset over denial of an opportunity to them.
TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu who announced his team of Ministers on Sunday tried to balance the caste, regional and other equations. In the process, he preferred some first timers instead of seniors that had become a topic of debate in the party circles.
Senior leader Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, Kagitha Venkata Rao, G.S.S. Sivaji, P. Narayanaswamy Naidu and G. Buchaiah Chowdary were among the hopefuls for Cabinet berths, but their names did not figure in the list. Mr. Satyanarayana Murthy openly expressed his dissatisfaction at being denied an opportunity despite waiting for a decade.
Though he asserted that he would continue to be in the TDP , Mr. Murthy, however, sent his resignation from the party vice-president post. Supporters of Mr. Kumar and Mr. Venkata Rao too were sore that their leaders were set aside by the party leadership and they staged protests in Guntur and Krishna districts respectively.
Mr. Venkata Rao, hailing from the Backward Classes was the party’s Chief Whip when the TDP was in power during 1994-2004. Another aspirant M. Venugopala Reddy, who contested from the Assembly leaving the Narasaraopet Lok Sabha seat was also said to be unhappy.
