The second day of the brain-storming session organised by Telugu Desam Party for Telangana leaders was marred by a tiff between senior leader T. Devender Goud and Medak MLA Mynampati Hanumantha Rao, over the Malkajgiri Assembly seat.
Sources said Mr. Hanumantha Rao was keen on shifting from Medak to Malkajgiri in the 2014 elections while Mr. Goud, who hails from Ranga Reddy district, saw it as a threat to his turf.
Mr. Goud is stated to have made it clear to the leadership that he should have considerable say when it comes to finalising the candidates in his district.
The differences virtually spilled over to the canteen of the TDP office on Tuesday during the lunch break of the session.
Party leaders in charge of the canteen did not allow Mr. Rao’s supporter, Venkatesh, asking him to join later after media persons had their lunch.
But Mr. Venkatesh spotted Mr. Goud’s personal aide Harishankar Reddy having food with media persons.
Mr. Venkatesh brought this to the notice of Mr. Hanumantha Rao and the latter arrived on the scene and hurled abuses at Mr. Reddy charging him with acting in connivance with the TRS in full presence of the media.
Some of the MLA’s supporters allegedly beat up Mr. Reddy.
Other leaders intervened to bring peace but by that time word reached Mr. Goud and he is stated to have left the meeting in a huff.
The other highlight of the session was a power point presentation by Nara Lokesh, son of the TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Clearly hinting at an active role he is going to play in the party in the coming days, Mr. Lokesh is stated to have given the leaders a lowdown on booth-wise election management.
He is stated to have told them that he had effectively put it into practice in his father, Mr. Naidu’s constituency, Kuppam in Chittoor district.
