Hyderabad: Will the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) once again be revived in Telangana? TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh chief minister, who is coming to Hyderabad for official purposes on Friday evening, is going to also preside over a meeting with TDP Telangana leaders on Sunday, July 7. He is likely to discuss the matter of appointing a new state head, among other pertinent things.
With Naidu once again back in power in Andhra Pradesh as chief minister, it is likely that he will appoint a new president for Telangana here after the last one – Kasani Gnaneshwar Mudiraj – quit last October after the TDP decided not to contest the Telangana state polls. The TDP had decided not to contest the Assembly elections as it was facing bleak prospects, after years of decline post Telangana’s formation in 2014.
A TDP functionary told Siasat.com that Naidu will land in Hyderabad on Friday, and meet Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy on Saturday, July 6, to discuss bifurcation issues. “Sunday he will meet Telangana leaders to discuss about the party here. The issue of having a new president will also be taken up,” he added.
The TDP’s fortunes in Telangana have not been great since the state’s formation in 2014. In the first even Assembly elections that year, though the TDP came to power in Andhra, it won just 15 seats out of 119 here (in alliance with the BJP). The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS, then TRS), came to power by winning 63 seats. BRS supremo and then chief minister K Chandrshekar Rao (KCR) soon engineered defections from the TDP and other parties, including the Congress, virtually ending the opposition in the Assembly.
In the 2018 polls, the TDP surprised everyone by joining hands with its long term nemesis Congress. However both failed as they could win just two and 19 seats, while the BRS stormed to power with 88 seats. Eventually, both the TDP MLAs and 12 Congress legislators also switched sides to the BRS. The TDP more or less became defunct, as most of its cade had shifted to the BRS, Congress or BJP.
In fact, current Telangana Congress chief minister Revanth Reddy was the working president of the TDP here before joining the grand old party. He is also believed to be Naidu’s protege. A political analyst who did not want to be quoted said that while it is unlikely that the TDP will regain its earlier political space in Telangana, it could try and capture some votes in areas where there are migrants from Andhra. “That might help it contest in limited capacities at best,” he added.
