The unabated influx of Seemandhra Congress leaders into the TDP is not only changing the political contours by making the ruling party units in many districts go ‘defunct’, but is creating fault lines in the Telugu Desam.
The TDP leadership, no doubt, is buoyed by the “strengthening” of the party with all and sundry, mainly from the Congress, joining it ahead of the elections.
However, the influx is keeping the party crisis managers busy in pacifying the sulking leaders.
The large scale migration of the Congress leaders into the TDP is brewing disappointment among the leaders serving the party for decades and their followers in many constituencies as their chances of getting a party ticket are shrinking fast.
Unhappy with the development, a senior leader from Rayalaseema said: “We are also turning into another Congress party with series of defections.”
On tenterhooksBesides, members of backward classes, who have been backing the party ever since its inception, are waiting on tenterhooks to know their fortunes, if any, as the Congress leaders joining the TDP in Rayalaseema belong to a particular community.
“How can we accept the new entrants now when we have been fighting all along,” a TDP leader from Kurnool bemoaned.
On the other hand, the Seemandhra leaders deserting Congress has rendered the party ‘defunct’ in all the four Rayalaseema and most of the coastal Andhra districts.
“The fact that the Congress has failed to field candidates in a majority of municipalities/nagar panchayats and municipal corporations in Rayalaseema reflects its position,” said the party polit bureau member and former Member of Parliament K. Srinivasulu.
Internal situation in the TDP is no different either in coastal Andhra where the party has been witnessing influx of Congress leaders.
“The friction will come out in the open as we approach the stage of finalisation of candidates for municipal chairpersons, mayors, Assembly and Lok Sabha seats,” a senior leader in Guntur, peeved at the ongoing changes in the party, said.
