Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

A summit of politically unemployed: TDP

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Jan. 17. The Telugu Desam Party has dubbed Thursday's meeting between Nara Ramamurthy Naidu and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, a ``partnership summit of the politically unemployed.''

While this expression was used by State Election Committee (SEC) member and MP, P. Prabhakar Reddy, the TDP's official line was that calls for separate Telangana or Rayalaseema were being given whenever some leaders found themselves out of political posts. The TRS chief's call fell in this category, it said.

Distancing itself from Mr. Naidu, the TDP said he was no longer a party member as he had failed to renew his membership last month. The party's stand was articulated at a press conference by the SEC convenor, Ummareddy Venkateswarlu, the party spokesman, R. Chandrasekhara Reddy, and the general secretary, R. Prakash Reddy.

They said Mr. Naidu had voluntarily announced his decision to keep away from politics after losing the Assembly elections in 1999. He had played no role in the panchayat polls but when the organisational elections began, his followers wanted him to be made constituency in-charge. This situation would not have arisen if he had remained active in the party.

Asked to comment on reports that Mr. Naidu had also met TDP MLAs from Rayalaseema region, S. V. Subba Reddy and Paritala Ravi, they said neither of the legislators had confirmed these reports.

Attacking Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, they said he was changing his tune every day by blaming the Congress for the backwardness of Telangana and calling it his ``enemy number one'' till yesterday and attaching this tag now to the TDP. Ridiculing his claim that the TDP would be wiped out after the Assembly polls, they recalled that the TRS was routed in the Hyderabad civic polls in spite of similar boasts by him earlier.

His own followers were deserting the TRS and yet he was claiming that TDP MLAs and Ministers were supporting his cause in order to create confusion among people. "Can it be called a movement when leaders who are out of office join his party.''

When it was pointed out that the Chief Minister's own brother was appreciating Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao's cause, the TDP leaders said that Mr. Ramamurthy Naidu had suddenly discovered these merits overnight.

The TDP leaders asserted that the Government was totally committed to the development of backward regions, and appealed to everyone who wanted improvement of these areas to extend cooperation to the Chief Minister and strengthen his hands. They attached no significance to the huge turnout at the TRS rally in Secunderabad and said Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao was exploiting people's sentiments by issuing misleading statements.

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