VIJAYAWADA: The announcement of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu about coming together of the TDP and the Congress to ‘save the nation’ has raised the hackles of the Opposition parties in the State who accused the TDP supremo of putting political agenda above the interests of people.
Co-incharge of the BJP State unit Sunil Deodhar termed the new-found bonhomie between the TDP and the Congress a cruel insult to the party founder, the late NT Rama Rao. “Irony just died a painful death today. NT Rama Rao formed the TDP for Telugu Pride and uprooted the Congress from Andhra Pradesh. Today, his Son-In-Law & Chief of TDP Chandrababu Naidu went to Delhi at doors of Congress and literally begged for support. Reason? His evil political gain. This is a cruel insult to NTR Garu whose #CongressHatao vision is transformed by Naidu into #CongressBachao(sic),” Deodhar tweeted. He observed that the two parties working together was like two sinking ships coming together for saving their corrupt bastions.
BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said that Naidu buried the spirit of NTR’s TDP, a party built on the alternative to the Congress. “The man who had not stood by NTR has now mortgaged the party’s soul to the Congress,” he remarked.
YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy said that the real objective behind Naidu’s tour to the national capital was to save the TDP. “The actual name of this drama is not Save Nation programme, but Save TDP. Naidu, who went hammer and tongs at the Congress till a while ago, now is getting ready to enter into a wedlock with the same party,” he observed.
The Left parties, though, had a different take. CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna welcomed the TDP joining hands with Congress to fight against the Modi regime. “We are for any development, that is against the Modi Sarkar. There is a need for all Opposition parties to unite to fight against Modi Government, which has turned anti-democratic,” he said. On being pointed out the anti-TDP stance of the CPI in the State, he said national and state-level perspectives were different. To buttress his argument, he said, “though the party supports Congress on some issues at the national level, it is the ruling party in Kerala while the Congress is in the Opposition.”
CPM State secretary P Madhu begged to differ with his CPI counterpart and said any anti-BJP alliance at the Centre would not work. “We have tried it before and I don’t think the TDP joining hands with the Congress would yield any result. As for the Left parties, they will remain anti-TDP, anti-Congress and anti-BJP in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
