Gear up for polls, Naidu to party leaders

Asks them to expose Congress’ strategy of dividing the State only to win seats and votes

Telugu Desam party president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday asked the party leaders to gear up for general elections and expose Congress strategy of dividing the State only to win seats and votes in collusion with TRS and YSRC.

Inaugurating the two-day brain- storming session organised by the party, Mr. Naidu surprised the participants who included MPs and MLAs of Seemandhra by contending that just about 100 working days were left for the elections and that they should work towards convincing people why TDP’s return has become a “historic necessity” when governance under scam and corruption- ridden Congress has collapsed. The delegates took Mr. Naidu by surprise by raising slogans of “Jai Samaikyandhra” at the start of the meeting.

Asserting that Congress is bound to be routed across the country in the coming elections as reflected in recent opinion polls, he said the TDP had bright chances as indicated by a fortnightly’s survey on Internet. It got 53 per cent while Congress is nowhere with just 2 per cent, BJP 23 per cent, YSRC 13 per cent and TRS 5 per cent, showing educated persons preferred TDP to others.

Mr. Naidu came down heavily on Congress for going ahead with bifurcation just to see Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister in 2014, by garnering Lok Sabha seats, giving a go by to conventions like adoption of a resolution in Assembly and showing least concern for 100- day agitation of people in Seemandhra. Repeated pleas to bring joint action committees of the two regions and the stakeholders to a negotiating table were ignored.

Centre slammed on division

The Centre has reduced the consultation process on such a sensitive issue of bifurcation to a mockery with the Group of Ministers now asking political parties to come individually on November 12 and 13 listen to their monologue for 20 minutes and leave, much like a school master does to students in a class, he said. His party had clarity on the issue--while supporting Telangana, it was insisting on equitable justice to people of the two regions.

The TDP president said in view of the elections he would spend most of his time touring the State galvanising the party cadre beginning with “Inti inta Telugu Desam” programme shortly.