With the voting date for the Lok Sabha election is fast approaching, uncertainty prevails over the way the Telangana Telugu Desam Party (TTDP) leaders and cadre as well as its sympathisers would cast their votes.
The TTDP, which saw erosion of its vote base subsequent on the State formation, however, has sizeable number of supporters in the Assembly segments under Malkajgiri, Secunderabad, Chevella and Khammam Lok Sabha seats. The party leadership remains indecisive on whether to ask its cadre to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with which it had alliance with the NDA at the national level or allow them to opt for their choice.
“When we are in alliance with the NDA in Andhra Pradesh, the same should continue here. But there is no formal request from the BJP leadership so far,” a TDP polit bureau member to The Hindu. It is for the BJP leadership to speak to the TDP so that a decision on extending support to the saffron party could be taken at the earliest, he said.
Senior leaders are of the view that a decision on the issue should be taken at the earliest to avoid confusion among the TDP’s support base. Though it did not field candidates on its own, the TDP’s support base in some constituencies can make or mar the prospects of the contesting candidates and it was for the BJP State leadership to take a call at the earliest.
The TDP leadership remained indecisive in the December assembly elections in Telangana leaving the choice to the local leaders and cadre. “How can we ask the party cadre to vote for a particular candidate when we have not fielded candidates on the party’s behalf,” he said, when asked whether the party had taken any decision on supporting the Congress or the BJP.
The TTDP leaders by and large extended their support to the Congress in different parts of the State except for the constituencies in GHMC and surrounding areas. With TTDP cadre voting for different parties, the BRS could win several seats including those under the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency represented by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.
