YSR Congress cadre at Anakapalle fiercely opposing the entry of former senior TDP leader Dadi Veerabhadra Rao into the party have made strident criticism of Mr. Rao opposing his style of functioning and the hardships YSRC cadre faced during their nearly 30-year political opposition. To honour the party leadership’s decision to admit Mr. Rao even while maintaining a dominant position without bowing before him remained the bottom line at the well-attended meeting at Anakapalle.
The meeting was quite critical of Mr. Rao leaving TDP in which he had spent most of his political career enjoying a number of positions culminating in his becoming leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council.
Party leader Konathala Lakshminarayana said he had enjoyed positions of power in TDP and when he realised that no longer he could get any post, he switched to YSRC. The dominant mood of the cadre here was that they were not prepared to work together with Mr. Rao, he said. Also none of the cadre in TDP followed Mr. Rao into YSRC, he pointed out. However, the meeting in which a number of leaders participated was held not to defy the high command but to help strengthen the morale of the cadre, he maintained. Former ZP chairman G. Rama Murthy Naidu, Gandi Ravi, A. Jameel and Dr. Sarada spoke.
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The TDP also took stock of the situation at a meeting at Anakapalle where former minister Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Visakha Dairy Chairman Adari Tulasi Rao, PVGR Naidu, MLA KSN Raju and Adari Kishore Kumar were present. The leaders criticized Mr Rao’s decision and termed it selfish.
With the TDP cadres also not happy with Mr. Rao’s decision the immediate task before the leadership was to stabilise the situation and keep the morale high by retaining the cadre. The cadre demanded that Dadi and his family take the responsibility for removing the hoardings in Anakapalle where Dadi Ratnakar was featured along with TD president N Chandrababu Naidu and set up during the padayatra.
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